Operation Cleaning, Site 3 six incident
by Noxfero
Summary: After an unknown incident, the top secret facility in the underground of the Everfree forest it's now full of criminals and crazy ponies on the loose. Nopony have to know of teh existence of the facility. The prisoners have to be contained, but currently, only three survived the jailbreak. They need support Rated T for swearing and general death and sufferig. *Oc submission closed*
1. Call for help

CRAK *…Is this thing recording? I don't think it's recording"

"The green light it's on, I presume it's recor…"

"Shut up, stupid idiot, I know that! Hey, can you hear me? This is Smooth Heart, from your damned prison-asylum-laboratory-thing in site 3 six! I really, really hope this message reaches those dumb princesses into their damned shiny castle!"

"Maybe that's not the right thing to say right now…"

"Shut the hell up you! We have a problem here. A huge problem. Long story short, we had a jail break. We don't know how, but the prisoner got free. Same situation in the asylum, and probably in the labs too. Someone must have shutted down the security system. It was a mess… guards killed, doctors slaughtered… not a nice show…"

"Are you okay…?"

"Yes… give me a moment… who the hell had the stupd idea to gather together criminals, mad ponies and who know what else?"

"…"

"Thought so… anyway, we need backup as soon as possible. All the guards are… well, dead. At the moment we are the only three survivors: me, the guard chief Masud and the former prisoner 188018 Twisted Soul, the pshycologist of the jail. The power is down, we only have a little emergency generator. Oh, and we only havethe food of the first two floors of the jail."

"Whait a sec! Can't we just leave?"

"Idiot, we are in the middle of the Everfree Forest! How could you hope to survive, so far from any city? And besides, we can't leave."

"What? Why?"

"Restricted information. We have to secure the area. Now shut the hell up, prisoner! As I was saying, we need reinforcements to clean up the structure and the capture of the fugitives. I don't want any of your stupid sissy guards around heare, so gather somepony that could be usefull in some way and send us a report, then I and the chief will see who is most suitable to not be a dead weight."

(Ok, if you want to send your oc into the facility, post a review or send a pm with the required information.)

Name:

Race: (earth pony, unicorn, pegasus, griffin, zebra)

Gender:

Age:

Coat (or primary color for griffins):

Mane (or secondary color for griffins):

Cutie Mark:

Personality:

Short Story:

Skill (why he/she could be usefull for the "cleaning" operation):

Anything else:

There are a lot of nasty things in site 3 six. Are you aware that your oc could be mutilated, torturated and killed in a variety of ways? Are you fine with that?:

"We need soldiers…or merenaries, I don't care. You're the one paing, not me. Maybe a doctor…"

"Better safe than sorry"

"Well said. Oh, and since most of the system is off, a technician would be appreciated. We have closed the principle entrance, you have to dispach them to the secondary entrance. And if I get out from this alive, I demand a pay rise!"

"… I'm hearing shouting..?"

"Some of the prisoners…? I see…then, I hope that this damned thing was realy record-* CRAK *


	2. Welcome to the site guys

"Oh, this is going to be so much funny, don't you think? I have never seen a prison, but it has to be extremly interesting!" exclaimed happily the white earth stallion, looking at the forest running under the flying cargo where he was sitting. Another earth pony with a rust colored coat was sitting at his side, nodding at all the blabbling that the other one was making. On the other side of the cargo, a pegasus and a unicorn were playing chess, the first with a desperate face, the second one with a wicked grin. "checkmate Rain!" declared the dark blue unicorn. "Oh, COME ON! This is the twenty-seventh time!". The gray pegasus groaned, standing up and watching the unicorn performing his I-have-beaten-you-again dance, recieving an annoyed look from the griffin sitting at the end of the cargo, and from his three lizards too.

Suddenly from the outside sounded the voice of one of their chauffeurs "Here we are gentelcolts: secondary entrance of the site. Please, exit the transport." With a screech the door of the cargo slided open, showing a little clearing surrounded by trees. With a grunt, the griffin jumped down, followed by his lizards. The white stallion went out adjusting his saddlebag. "One question pal: where are we supposed to go?" asked the unicorn to one of the pegasus that was trasporting the cargo. "I mean… there is nothing in this place.. are you sure it's the right one?" "It's a secondary entrance, of course it's hidden. Just wait in the middle of the clearing" answered the pegasus, one of the royal guards of the Canterlot Army. The unicorn nodded, looking at the cargo rising again in the sky and flying away. "This is so EXCITING!" cried the white stallion, looking around. "So… what's supposed to happen?" asked bored the griffin, putting on a hunter's hat. "well…." Suddenly the earth began to shake, and with the noise of huffing machines, the center of the pavement started to descend underground with his eight guests.

After ten minutes of descent, the elevator stopped, in front of a long dark corridor, barely illuminated from some green emergency lights. "This is not encouraging…" whispered the pegasus looking around. The unicorn gulped, while one the lights went out with a pop. The griffin slowly took out a crossbow, aiming carefully in the darkness. "Put that thing down griffin. And all of you, stop tremble" came out a voice from the dark. A pony in a total body-covering black suit appeared in front of them, leaving his hideout in the shadows. "Chief Masud it's my name" stated, bowing slightly. "And you are the backup… only five.. oh well, better than nothing, i suppose…" "I count as four" scoffed the griffin, pointing at the three lizards. The pony nodded slightly "I suppose… you are McGash, the only griffin… trapper, sad your interview…is that correct?" "More or less…" shrudded him, lowering down his weapon. "I'm good also at killing things" "That's good, that's good…" murmured the suited pony, moving his gaze on the unicorn "field medic Nox?" "Yes sir, that's me!" exlamed the unicorn, saluting with his foreleg. "We hope that your help will not be needed, but well…we are happy you are here…" "Thank you sir!". The pony nodded. "then you two must be our technicians, Gear Box and Gizmo Fidget?" "Yes sir" "Indeed we are! And I want you to know, i'm really, REALLY happy to be here lending a hoof. Of course, It's also for the pay but hey, i love to be useful anyway. I remember that time…" "Does he have an off button?" whispered the suited pony to Gizmo Fidget, that grinned in response "If he has one, i couldn't find it"

After twenty minutes of blabbering from Gear Box, Masud identified the pegasus as the bounty hunter Cobalt Rain, and they began to move long the corridor.

"We didn't kow how it happened. I was on a patrol, and all of sudden, the cells were open. They were crazy… they killed my two companions, and tried to kill me too" "How do you survived?" asked the griffin, while they were passing through a steel door. "I escaped. I'm preatty agile, you know?" "Agile? The day i'll see an earth pony agile is far, faaaaaaar away" "Earth pony….oh yes. Understood" the pony stopped, lowering the suit from his head, revealing a stripped fur and a short, stripped mane. "A zebra..? well, this is unexpected…" huffed the griffin. They continued to walk silently (exept for the blabbing of Gear Box) with the sound of their steps echoing in the corridor. The lights occasionally fliched a little and there was a costant dripping noise.

Finally, they arrived in front of another door, that the zebra opened pressing his hoof on a panel next to it. The door opened with a sharp whistle and a buff of steam, showing the inside of a large office with a large set of windows on one of the wall, a set of screens on another one and a door on the third. "Smooth? I got the backup!" called the zebra, stepping inside. "She is not heeeare…" sing-songed a cold voice from behind a green sofa: an unicorn with a black fur and a long and neglected violet mane was sitting on the ground, wrapped in an orange suit and concentrated in writing something on a clipboard. Nox noted a golden ring locked around his horn. "People, meet prisoner 1888p, the psychologist of the jail. Where is she?". The unicorn chucled a little "oh, come on Masud, you can call e with my name… anyway, she was stressed out by listening to me, so she went ouside. Heared some hounds she sad". The zebra frowned, than moved towards the windows "place yourselves everypony…" murmured, looking outside. While the others were putting down their begs (and the lizards were sniffing around), Cobalt Rain was standing still, glaring to the unicorn "I know you…" whispered, pointing a hoof " I was hunting you, in Manehattan, with other bounty hunters… You are that crazy mafia boss… the brain smasher!" the unicorn rised his violet eyes, looking the pegasus with an amused expression "I prefer my name, Twisted Soul… and, so sorry, there was an awful lot of bounty hunters searching for my head…" "You got captured by the guards! A real shame… the scum like you deserve to be killed in a street…" the unicorn chucled again "Amusing… such a determination, without knowing anything of me. Must be a reaction to some trauma from your past, I presume. The lost of someone loved by hand of some criminal, am I safe to assume?" "Why you….!"

Suddenly, a burst of loud barking and growling came from outside. On the other side of the little door came the sound of quick hoofsteps, then an orange pegasus mare bursted in the room, closing the door beside her "Where the buck is my rifle!" shouted, looking around. The zebra looked at her, worried "What is…?" with a loud bang, the door split open, and three big, growling, drolling and angry diamond dogs entered the room. They were big, black coated, with the muzzle of a doberman. With a girly screem Twisted Soul jumped behind the sofa, while Masud charged one of the hounds. With a jump he flew behind him, grabbing at the same time his head. With a snap, the hound's neck's bone was gone. The diamond dog fel down with a little yelp, while his two companions charged the others. McGash emitted a short whistle, and the three lizards jumped on a leg of one of the charging beasts, gnawing his flesh. Cobalt Rain jumped on the same diamond dog, hitting his nape with all his might. "What the hay are those things?" screamed Nox, avoiding the third dog that hitted the wall, howling in pain. "Hounds! Are diamond dogs raised as guards of the prison! The shoutdown set down their electrificated collars!" shouted back the zebra, that charged the diamond dog hitting his back and pinning him on the wall. The diamond dog yelped and turned around, waving his clawed paw. With a cry of pain, the zebra got hitted on his flank, three long bloody slash visibles on his side. McGashed pulled out his Crossbow, shooting an arrow in the eye of the nearest hound. The one covered by the griffin's lizards and the pegasus gurgled in pain, when the arrow entered in his head taking the eye way. The griffin turned towards the third dog, shoothing another arrow, hitting him in the shulder. "Buck… they are tought!" growled the griffin, shooting again and hitting the hound in his chest. The hound hollowed and charged the griffin, without stopping when the three lizards jumped on him, biting his body.

"Here you are, bucking gun!" shouted the mare, rising from a pile of paper a long, silver-colored rifle, aiming at the hound's head. With a blast of light and a booming sound, the head of the hound splattered on the wall. The body trembled for a couple of second, than fell down with a thud. "Aren't you two supposed to be able to stand a fight? Asked Twisted Soul to the two earth stallions hiding with him behind the sofa "well…yes…but that doesn't mean we have to fight…right?" murmured Gizmo, looking at the hounds on the floor. "Damned Hounds! Well…at least now we have something to eat…" than she raised her eyes, grinning and moving away her scarlet mane "Welcome to site 3 six everyone… we are going to have a lot of fun togheter… or die trying"


	3. Getting to work

"That burns!"

"That's good for you, chief. Now, shut it!" grouled Nox, glaring at the zebra while healing his wounds. "Those cuts are not to much deep… but I'd prefer to have some medical supplies under hoof… just for being safe"

"And I'd like to be the queen of the sky" stated Smooth Heart, walking beside them. "Now, if our little doctor has finished, I will appreciate to put our lovely backup at work". The mare walked to the windows, looking in the darkness outside. "We are in the section of the jail, at the moment, precisely at the first floor". She turned around, glaring at the others: "I'll need all the help you could give us".

"I don't know what did they say to you, probably nothing, since this facility is supposed to be a secret for the rest of Equestria, so, let me explain really fast: this is a horrible, horrible place, no other way for say that. All the levels. Usually a hell only for the inmates, but now…" she spitted at the ground "well… you can imagine."

Gizmo Fidget rised an eyebraw, looking at the mare "Actually, I can't. i mean, prisons aren't supposed to be really heavily guarded? And anyway, why the prisoners would have to go nuts? A bunch of thieves and thugs should know better than running around killing ponies. I mean, it's bad for them. It's sensless"

"my dear, but we didn't have thieves and thugs heare. For them, there are the common prisons. We were in charge of guarding most dangerous ponies, mass murderes, serial killers, rapists, you know, those kind of guys" replaied the mare, shrugging. "Also, the asylum is not a common one, it's a criminal asylum. We had some of the most dangerous psychopaths ever existed, like te "doll maker" or the "black widow". Not a nice company, i have to admit. And joy of joys, we are trapped here with them."

"Whait…trapped?" The unicorn doctor stood up, looking at her "You mean that if we are going to have a medical emergency, we can't have help?"

"Eyup. The main door is shut, with the main generator down, and the elevator you used for entering was usually used for the food delivers. Allows things to enter, not to exit"

"And pray tell, were is the main generator?" asked annoyed the griffin, while cutting a chunk of meat from one of the hound's corpse and trowing it to his lizards.

"At the bottom of the facility, in the labs"

"And why the hay the main generator is in the labs? And, why the hay there are labs in a jail asylum! That's crazy!"

"Not so much, my feathered friend" murmured the unicorn in the orange suit, while continued to write on his clipboard. "Easy guinea pigs. For medicines, mostly, but also spells and a bunch of other stuff."

"Shut it prisoner!" shouted the pegasus mare. The unicorn just shrugged "I was just informing. Jeez…"

"Anyway, we have two main task heare" went on to say the pegasus, ignoring the interruption. "First thing first, recapture as most fugitives we can, both from the jail and the asylum, and as a second task, we need to open the Celestia damned gate. Is that clear? Good, that was the bad part. The horrible part is that the inferior floors are sealed, due to the loss of energy, but we should deal with it later."

The mare looked at the group in front of her, than pointed at the griffin. "You are the trapper. Could you set some booby trap, in case others hounds or violent prisoners try to attack this office?"

"Finally. I was wondering when I was going to do anything. Obviusly, at the end of this mess, i want to be paid for the traps too". The griffin stood up and moved toward the door, followed by his lizards.

"Ok, then… one of the engineers stay here, and try to fix the security cameras…you, white one!

Gear Box jumped when the mare addressed him. "Uh! Yes lady…miss! I mean, of course! That's why I'm here, to heeeeeeeelp taking off the bad guys! And if that means repair a bunch o cameras. This reminds me to that time when me and a good friend of mine were…"

"First rule: shut up and we will be really good friend" moaned the mare, rubbing her forehead. "Get to work. Now, the other engineer and the pegasus…Cobalt Rain, is it right? You two have to go to the generator on the second floor, starting the energy here, on the second floor and on the third. Little, but better than nothing. Do you have any weapon?"

Gizmo smiled happily "well more or less… I got one of my creations, and it seems this is a good occasion for testing it" exlaimed, extracting from his saddlebag a strange metallic gauntlet, with some pins and plugs mounted on it. "Behold, the Buzz-Kill 2000! My most magnificent creation!"

"Yes yes yes, yada yada yada, ok. And you pegasus?"

Cobalt rain frozen in place, than blushed a little, while looking evrywhere exept that in the mare's eyes "They told me that i got weapons here… I'm kinda without anything…"

"How could you! I mean, your description said you were a fighter, how could you be weaponless! You should get exemple from McGash!" moaned the pegasus, flapping her wings in desperation

Behind the door, arrived the voice of the griffin "Who shouldn't?"

"well… Gash, could you please lend one of your knives to this * incomprehensible murmur * of a pegasus? Of course, if you find some weapon, you cat take it and bring it heare. But probably the inmates taken the guard's weapons. Our only hope for now is the armory. Well, we will think about that later. Now, about the route for the generator…"

The second metallic door closed with a soft whistle leaving the scarlet earth pony end the pegasus in the half darkness, with the only company of the green emergency lights. The two ponies looked at each other, before starting walking in the corridor. The cells on their sides were all open, showing small, dirty rooms with dirty, little beds. There were stains of dry blood on the walls and floor, but there were no corpses to be seen.

"Well… this is kinda creepy…" murmured the red stallion, walking slowly. The pegasus just nodded, the knives ready to attack. The only sound was only the one of their Hooves on the ground.

"This seems to be safe… after all Smooth Heart sad that the other levels are locked. So, with a little bit of luck, there are going to be no problems at all".

From the lower levels, came a scream of pain and the sound of a shoot.

"Hope so.. maybe they will be to much occupied killing each other for minding us."

They passed a door on their left, entering in a shorter, much cleaner corridor. There was a faint, buzzing sound.

"That must be the generators room" pointed Gizmo, happily. "This is the small sound of a weak, automatic emergency generator! It started automatically when the first went down". The stallion opened the door, entering in a small, dirty room, where a little generator was huffing.

"See? Told you. Now, the generator must be heare somewhere…" muttered the engineer, looking around. "Not heare. Not here. Not here…oh here it is!". The earth pony glanced at the wall, were an entire section had been replaced by the control panel of the generator. On a little screen there was a little image of princess Luna, with the writing "offline" under it. Gizmo approaced, looking with caution at the panel "Ok, I should have some duct tape somewhere…" said, putting a hooves in his saddlebag.

"I don't get it. I mean, if the power just went off, it not sufficient to turn the switch on again?" asked the pegasus, while the scarlet stallion began to shovel his hooves inside the generator.

"A simple lack of energy would never have opened the cells, probably it was a malfunction… so, i can repair it"

the console emitted an irritated bip and huffed a puff of smoke in the face of the stallion.

"i hope so…" groaned Cobalt, while the stallion coffed, the muzzle black in ash.

"So…you need to fix all the generators all the way down, for at last fix the main generator and opening the mane gate?" asked the unicorn, touching the ring around his horn

"Yeah… I suppose… It's the plan…" responded Nox, looking suspiciously at him.

"Do you understand that for only six pony and a griffin, surviving in eighteen floors, with armored, bloodthirsty ponies is simply impossible?" asked the unicorn, putting away his clipboard. "Why did you decided to come in this kind of suicide mission?"

"I…uh..they said they neede a medic for a special mission, and I…"

"Not a wise choice, my friend…" stated the other unicorn, looking at Masud e Smooth Heart replacing the door that the hound had smashed. "We are not going to last, let me tell you this much. I know what we have heare, i have analized all the captives, and some of the internated in the asylum. Let me tell you this: compared to some inmates, that Nightmare Moon girl was a sweet little filly"

"I highly doubt it" groaned Nox, standing up, gathering his few medical tools. The other one just looked at him with his violet eye. "If those criminals are so dangerous, why i never heard of them?"

Twisted Soul chuckled "But obviously because the authority, the dear preincess of the sun didn't want to let know that even in her perfect, happy realm could exist some really bad, bad ponies. It is forbidden to give information outside the town where omicides and rapes happens, and when the "bad ponies" get captured they are all sent here, and everypony else have just to forgot them… willingly or not. But they are all here, allways ready to kill…"

The scream of a mare sounded somewhere under them

"Things like that, basically"


	4. Meeting the neighbors

"Did you hear that?" asked the pegasus, grasping the dagger, bumping on the engineer.

The other pony jumped in surprise, slamming his head inside the generator with a loud thud, shouting a colorful variety of swearings.

"What? I'm trying to repair somethin' here!" snorted, rubbing his forehead. The pegasus rised his ears, with a worried look on his face.

"Somepony is coming" whispered, then grabbed the other one by his tail, tossing him behind a group of boxes and pushinh his head down, while the sounds of voices and hoovesteps began to sound outside the door. With a loud crash, the door flew open, and five ponies entered the room: four of them were wearing an orange suit whit a number on it, like Twisted Soul.

Two of them, two pegasus, were dragging the struggling body of a young mare, wrapped in a strait jacket that was ripped in the lower half, showing her flank and her hindlegs. The blu fur was stained and ruffled, like the long, gray tail. Her eyes darted around, terrified and full of tears, while the two ponies threw her on the ground. One of the other ponies, a purple earth pony with a scar on his muzzle and the picture of a destroyed building on his flank walked on, pinning her on the ground.

"Come on sweetie, be a good mare, and i'll not beat you again. Well, not too much…" he chuckled, passing a hoof in her mane. She just whimpered, starting to cry.

"Try to be quick, we want a turn with her too, you know?" grunted a pegasus with a blue coat and a broken arrow as a cutie mark, glaring at the mare, while the fifth pony, an unicorn, nodded at his words. The earth pony said nothing, and began to rub the mare's flank.

"Stay here…" murmured Cobalt, tapping the scarlet Earth pony, then flapped silently his wing and jumped over the boxes, near the ceiling, and throwed McGash's knife. With a soft, ripping noise, it entered easly in the unicorn's chest, that fell to the ground without a sound.

"What the bu…" began the blue pegasus, and in the same moment Cobalt landed beside him, taking his head with the hoof and slamming it on the wall. The pegasus wimpered, falling on the ground. The other pegasus shouted in surprise, than charged Cobalt Rain that simply dodged, hitting the pegasus in the nape. The pegasus yelped, staggering a little for the impact, while Cobalt bolted to the unicorn's corpse, trying to grab back the knife, but the earth pony was faster: he jumped of from the earth pony mare and kicked the pegasus in the flank.

The air left Cobalt's lungs as he fell on the ground, gasping and weezhing. The earth pony stepped on him, pressing on his troath with one hoof.

"Well well well what have we got here?" snikered, while the pegasus approached, glaring at Cobalt with hate.

"Seems a little hero to me, trying to save our little toy" laughed the earth pony, pressing his hoof. "And that makes you a guard. A survived one, stupid enough to try to fight four ponies all alone. How could you even think about something so stupid?"

With a crash, the boxes where Gizmo was hiding were launced towards the earth pony that was holding down Cobalt. With a war cry Gizmo charged the pony, stunned by the sudden chaos, and hit him on the jaw with the gauntlet covered hoof. With a rain of sparks and burned fur smell, the stallion fell down, twitching a little. The still standing pegasus looked scared at the gauntlet still crackling and sparkling, and didn't noticed Cobalt grabbing his knife.

With a quick movement, the jugular of the pegasus was sheared, and with a loud gurgling, his body fell on the ground. Cobalt panted, looking at Gizmo.

"I had evrything under control"

"Sure you did" grinned Gizmo, looking at the earth pony on the ground. "I think it's still too much powerful… I'm surprised it didn't stop this guy's heart" murmured, looking at the gauntlet. The pegasus rolled his eyes, then turned his attention on the mare: she was whimpering on the floor, covering her face with her forelegs.

"Hey…it's ok, we are the good guys" murmured Cobalt approaching the mare. She looked at him with trembling lips, and only at that moment the pegasus noticed that one eye of the mare was red, while the other one was a light turquoise color.

"I'm going to call somepony. We need to lock somewhere this two" stated Gizmo, pointing at the pegasus and the earth pony passed out on the floor. Cobalt nodded, but suddenly the mare grabbed his forelegs, wriggling in the straitjacket.

"Please! Please! I… we need your help! We were not alone..! they have taken us…and he is still…"

"Easy now. What happened?" asked worried Cobalt, looking at the mare

"We were trying to escape, then…then they captured us, and those stallions brought me here. But he…he is still…near.. I…we have to help him…"

"Ok, ok, listen to me. What's your name?"

"My name is Silver Image… it's my name… mine, only mine, not hers…" the mare began mumbling, tapping a hoof on his head. Cobalt Rain looked at her in confusion, then realized: she had a straitjacket. She was from the asylum's levels. She was supposed to be a mad mare. The pegasus stepped back a little.

"We…uh…are going to help him… just let us bring you to some of our friends. They will be happy to help you, while we…"

"There is no time!" shouted the mare, suddenly standing up. "they could kill him!" and with that, she bolted out of the smashed door.

"Well…that was interesting…" stated Gizmo, while the pegasus was looking speechless at the door.

"Well….two prisoners and you two still alive it not bad…" murmured Smooth Heart, locking the two uncouncious ponies inside a side room of the office.

"The generator?"

"Still offline… i was working on it, but then…" Gizmo pointed at the office, shrugging.

"Well, we will fix that. Now…" the mare tapped his chin, while the other ponies, zebra and griffin (and lizards) gathered around her. "Cobalt Rain, McGash and Masud will follow the mare… if there are prisoners near, it's better getting them. McGash, I think you will have no problem in following the mare's tracks, am I wrong?"

The griffin shrugged "It will not be a problem at all. beside, I have their nose." He pointed at the lizards, that hissed in response.

"Good. Gear Box and Gizmo Fidget will work on the generator, while I stay here with the doc, looking at the prisoners"

"Whait a sec" said Nox, rising an eyebraw "It's not a better idea if I go with Cobalt and the others? They could need a medic"

"Usually yes. But you are our only doctor, I can't risk to lose you. You'll stay safe here with me"

"If you could call it safe…" scoffed Twisted Soul, grinning. The mare threw him an ashtray.

"See? We are not going to live long. If those prisoners don't kill us, that crazy mare will" groaned Twisted Soul, while Nox pressed a little ice pack on the other unicorn's head.

"I heard you Twisted!" shouted Smooth Heart, glaring daggers at him.

"This is not helping to, you know?" stated Nox patiently "tease her in a situation like this it's not the better choice, I think?"

"and deprive me of my only entartainment in this place? Perish the thought" snikered Twisted, gaining another glare from the mare. "After all, with this ring at my horn, I can't do anything… more useless then a blind cockatrice."

Suddenly, the sound of banging hooves arrived from behind the office door.

"well, it seems that our guests are awake… than we shall…" began the mare, but stopped when the door fell down showing the two stallions awake and angry. Really angry.

"Oh, ponyfeathers…" groaned Twisted. "And down the south we go"

"Get them!" shouted the earth pony, charging Smooth Heart.

The mare was fully hit by the charging pony, slamming on the wall. The earth pony began beating her flank, shouting something incoherent. The pegasus stallion jumped on the two unicorns. Twisted rolled away, while Nox was strucked down.

"I got you now damn guard! You will not take me in that damn cell again!" growled the pegasus, hitting the medic's face, failing to notice the faint glowing aura around his horn. A bolt of magic energy erupted from Nox's horn, hitting the pony face and sending him against the wall with a cry of pain. The medic stood up, dazed by the beating. When his vision cleaned up, he saw the pegasus walking towards him, the face distorted by the rage.

"I'm gonna bucking kill you!" shouted then jumped again on Nox, hitting his horn with a flying kick.

Pain stinged in the unicorn's body, as Nox rised his hooves at his horn, crying in pain. The pegasus pushed him on the ground, and began pressing his hooves on Nox's neck. His vision began to fade, while the sounds were arriving muffled to his ears. He start paniking, trying to breath.

Suddenly the pegasus's grasp loosened, and the blurred image of Twisted Soul entered in his eye sight. When the air returned in his lungs and his vision cleared for the second time, he saw the other unicorn standing in front of him with a bloody typewriter hanging from his mouth. The pegasus was standing up again, with the left side of the head covered in blood.

"Well…we are screwed" groaned Nox, choking a little.

"Nox…remove the ring… quickly!"


	5. Splitted!

The earth pony hit the mare's head, slamming it against the wall. Smooth Heart emitted a low whimper, collapsing on the ground. The stallion hit her again, then turned towards his companion, with a grin on his face.

A golden ring was lying on the floor, and the two unicorns were facing the pegasus, standing still in the middle of the room.

Nox was hiding behind the other unicorn, who was looking at the pegasus with glowing eyes while his hooves were removing the orange suit, exposing his flank, where was an image of an eye with a red spiral in it. The pegasus was looking into his glowing eyes with a dull expression. Suddenly, the unicorn pointed at the earth pony, and with a shout, the pegasus charged.

The stallion was too surprise to react, and was pushed down by the pegasus, before he began punching the other's troath. The earth pony tried to react, but soon, he was laying motionless on the ground, a faint trail of blood dripping down from his mouth. The pegasus continued hitting him for a couple more minutes, then stood up with the same dull expression, walked towards a window, smashed the glass, and stabbed his own neck on the glass shards.

Nox looked terrified as the pegasus began gurgling, puking up blood and struggling a little, but soon, he stopped.

The young unicorn looked at the elder one with a mix of horror and admiration in his eyes. "What…what the buck was that…?" he managed to say.

"A bad job. Usually it's not so evident that they are hypnotizated. I suppose I have to regain control of my spells again; it's been a lot of time since I last used them" stated Twisted Soul, looking with moderate interest at the two corpses. "We have to take care of the bodies. Chop them to pieces and throw them into the incinerator tunnel is the best choice" He raised his eyes and noticed the look on the other unicorn's face, then added: "I'll do that. You have to take care of our lovely, fainted mare."

-oOo-

"Where do you think she ran?" asked Cobalt Rain to the zebra, while the couple was following the griffin, who was engaged in searching on the ground for the traks of the crazy mare.

"Probably on the second floor. The ponies she mentioned must be in the bathroom or the cafeteria. But it's strange: Smooth and I had already searched the first and the second floor, the only one accessible, for now, and there was nopony. How did they manage to pass the security door between the second and the third floor?"

"She cut herself" murmured the griffin, while they were passing down a stairway. "She is prtty clumsy, there is the trail of blood from here, and she left an awfull lot of hoofprints all around the debris." He pointed to some tiny red spots on the wall and on the stairs.

Cobalt was sure that only the griffin could culd see tracks in those semi invisible tmarks, but said nothing.

Past the metallic door for the second level, McGash motioned to his companions to stop, while his three lizards began hissing faintly.

"What's near? The cafeteria or the bathroom?"

The zebra put on the hood of his suit, looking around suspiciously "The cafeteria…and this is good for us." The griffin nodded.

"Wait, why is it good for us?" asked Cobalt, looking around and raising his ears.

"In a bathroom, we are all at the same ground level. In a jail's cafeteria, there is a higher level where guards stay, monitoring the prisoners below. We will attack from there. At least, I will attack from there. You two are more hoof to hoof fighters, so… well, do whatever you want."

Masud nodded, than explained to the griffin the way for the superior part of the cafeteria. The griffin charged his crossbow, moving rapidly thowards teh stairs pointed by the zebra, followed by the three lizards. Soon, Masud and Cobalt Rain were alone in the corridor.

"Ok….then…what are we going to do? Attack from the front door?" asked Cobalt, looking at the zebra tapping on the floor.

"Nope. Attack from underground, more or less." With a grin, he opened one of the metallic tiles on the ground, revealing a small passage. "Those are the maintenance passage for repairing the electrical stuff directly under the floor. They pass trought the cafeteria too, so…"

"We can have the element of surprise" grinned the pegasus, jumping into the tunnel behind the zebra. They had to crawl, and Cobalt couldn't see a thing, but he continued to follow the zebra's tail, feeling it tickling his muzzle.

"A claustrophobic would be dead here…" he muttered to himself, as the passage lowered a little, widening in return.

Suddenly, the sound of voices reached their ears from above. Raspy and cruel voices. Masud continued to move, and Cobalt followed him until he stopped, standing up a little. The space was sufficient enough to kneel. Masud rised the tile above him a little, taking a quick glance into the cafeteria: the tables and chairs were all scattered on the blood stained floor. In the middle of the room, slightly illuminated by some emergency lights, there were a couple of griffins, a pegasus and a unicorn were gathered, all of them wearing an orange suit. There was another earth pony with an orange suit, tied to a table, his blond mane spilling in front of his muzzle. It was hard to understand if he was sleeping, unconscious, or was dead.

"It's more than one hour…where the hell are those idiots?" muttered the unicorn. "We don't have time to waste, how could they stay so long with only one mare?"

One of the griffins shrugged, while the other stayed still, eyes locked on the bound pony.

"Shall we go to search them? I'll prefer that instead of staying here…" began the pegasus, scratching his neck.

"Nope. We will wait for a couple of minutes, then proceed with the plan. We have to follow the orders of that guy, Crystal Horn, if we want to get out of here alive!" stated the unicorn, walking slowly through the room.

Cobalt looked at the footbridges above the cafeteria, and after some seconds, he spotted McGash's shadow: he was pointing the crossbow towards the group, probably aiming for the unicorn. He was just waiting for the right moment to open fire. He needed a distraction. The pegasus grasped the knife, ready to jump out from his hiding spot and attack the group.

When suddenly, one of the doors of the cafeteria burst open, and the mare that Cobalt and his companions were following charged inside the room. At the same moment McGash fired his crossbow: with a whistle the arrow flew into the air, stabbing the pegasus in the knee. The pony cried in pain, and howled even more when the mare in the straightjacket leapt on him, beginning to stab his face with a long and rusted screwdriver. The griffins jumped away and looked at the place where the arrow had come from, then charged towards McGash.

"Cobalt, help the griffin!" shouted Masud, jumping out and charging the unicorn, who responded by grasping a couple of tables with his magic to begin swirling them in the air.

Cobalt jumped in the air, opening his wings and following the two griffins that had spotted and charged McGash. One of them was using the other as a shield from the arrows that McGash was shooting one after another against them. Cobalt darted against him, hitting his back and pressing him on the wall, while the other one continued his fly towards the hunter, ignoring the three arrows stabbed in his body. When he was only a few feet from McGash, the poacher emitted a low whistle, and the three lizards that were hiding between his wings jumped on the other griffin, clawing his face.

"Back off, crazy pegasus!" growled the griffin pinned by Cobalt, hitting the pegasus's head with his talons, aiming for his eyes. Cobalt dodged, trying to subdue the griffin.

"Stop this idiocy and you will not be harmed!" tried to reason the pegasus, while the griffin continued to struggle. On the other side of the room, McGash thad taken back the arrows from the dying body of the griffin, looking at him with disappointment.

"You are not allowed to call yourself a griffin." He stated, then reloaded his weapon. On the lower level, Masud had broken the unicorn's neck, and was now consoling the mare as she whimpered, trying to clean the blood of the pegasus from her muzzle.

"Be reasonable! You don't have any other way to get out of here alive!"

"Reasonable my ass, sissy pegasus! He will kill me if I don't kill you, damned pieace of-" the griffin was cut off as an arrow stabbed into his skull.

"That was uncalled for." growled the pegasus, letting the griffin's body fall towards the floor as he looked at McGash.

The griffin shrugged and flew downn joining Masud as he pointed at the fainted earth pony. McGash began cutting the ropes, while Cobalt approached the zebra and the crying mare.

"How is she?" asked the pegaus, pointing at the mare.

"Twisted Soul will tell us…" mumbled the zebra, with a concerned frown on his face.

"What's the matter?" asked the pegasus

"Crystal Horn… he was the asylum's overseer…."

-oOo-

"Ok, let's see what we have here…" muttered Gear Box, looking at the electric panel.

"See? I thik I cutted something when Cobalt Rain starled me"

"Well well, we shall fix it!" happily exlaimed the white stallion.

They didn't notice the shadow. At least, Gear Box didn't notice it. Gizmo Fidget turned towards the toolsbox, and saw it: on the wall an enormous, dark unicorn's shadow. Without a body to project it. Gizmo openedd his mouth, and the shadow moved: it moved in the walls, sliding towards the two engineer's shadows, extending a hoof adorned with what seemed to be claws, and slashed the white pony's shadow's back.

Gear Box shouted as three long, deep and bloody gashes appeared on his back. The shadow swirled on the wall and pinned again its "claws" in the other one's shadow. Gear Box emitted another cry of pain, while a deep wound appeared on his stomach.

"Help…me…" he gurgled, looking with desperate eyes at the other earth pony.

Gizmo Fidget flinched, looking at the shadow raising again its claw, then did the only thing he thought could be logical: he ran away, out of the room, slamming the door and pressing himself against the wall of the corridor, while the cries of pain of the other pony were ripping his ears, accompanied by the sound of things being smashed. Then, suddenly, silence. A pool of blood began to flood out from under the door.

"What…the hay…just…happened…?" murmured Gizmo, tears of horror and disgust pouring out from his eyes.

Thes he saw it again: the shadow was sliding under the door, and it was looking at him.

Ok, he couldn't see the shadow's eyes, of course, but he knew it was looking at him.

"It's going to kill me" he realized.

With a cry of fear, the scarlet earth pony started to run towards the office, while the shadow began to slide rapidly along the floor behind him.


	6. Trapped

Gizmo Fidget was running frantically for the corridor, while behind him the shadow was sliding silently, following the pony.

"Oh dear Celestia please save me! I promise I'll never have again dirty thoughts about that Berry Punch and Colgate but please help me!" shouted the stallion, running as if he was being chased by Nightmare Moon.

Finally he reached the metallic door at the entrance of the office. He began banging on the door. "Open! For Luna's sake, open the door!"

From inside arrived muffled sounds, then the scared voice of Nox :"There's no energy, the door won't budge! What's happening?" A faint blue aura surrounded the door, while Nox tried to push it open. Gizmo looked back: the shadow was coming, flowing on the walls.

"It's going to kill me! It killed Gear Box!" screamed Gizmo, banging on the door, panicking as the shadow approached.

"Get out of the way pipsqueak!" growled the voice of Twisted Soul, then a dark purple aura surrounded the door, before it was thorn from its hinges. The two unicorns were inside, looking worriedly at the earth pony. Gizmo darted inside, screaming.

Nox rised an eyebrow, then noticed the shadow.

"Close the door! Close it!" He shouted, stepping back into the office. With a grunt, Twisted Soul lighted his horn again, pressing the door against the doorframe and closing the entrance. The shadow simply passed under it. The unicorn retreated quickly, joining the others in the main room of the offices. Smooth Heart was lying on the sofa, unconscious.

The shadow swirled on the walls, moving its head like it was looking at all those ponies, unshure about who kill first.

Nox and Gizmo were holding each other, whimpering in fear while the shadow approached them. The oldest unicorn darted his eyes around, searching for something. The shadow emitted a screech while extending his shadow-claws toward the fainted shadow of Smooth Heart, when suddenly, with a bang, the emergency lights of the office went out, hit by a couple of bullets from Smooth's sniper rifle, hold in Twisted Soul's magic grip. As soon as the light died, the room was filled with darkness.

A piercing scream echoed in the room and suddenly, they saw the shadow through the corridor again, sliding away and holding his forelegs as if they were hurt. Screeching, it entered in an air vent, and disappeared.

Nox lighted his horn, trembling a little "What happened…? Why did it leave?"

"And why the hay did you shoot the lights? Do you want to kill us? That's a shadow, in the darkness…" Gizmo stopped, realizing what the unicorn had just done.

"A shadow doesn't exist in the darkness." Stated Twisted Soul. "Only an idiot could think that the better way to make a shadow disappear is use light". The unicorn lowered the smoking rifle and checked the corridor. "Anyway, I think I'm right to suppose that with a boken door, this place is now safe as the Manehattan ghetto."

Nox sniffed, approaching the other unicorn. "What are we going to do then?"

"Yes, I want to know that too." Mumbled the scarlet stallion, sitting heavily on the floor. "That thing…when he killed Gear Box… It must have smashed the emergency generator…the doors will not work… what are we going to do?"

Twisted Soul looked at both of them, then snickered "I was so right about you two."

"Excuse me?"

"That you two are incapable of decisions. You always need a superior as a reference. Anyway, we have to try to communicate with Masud and the others… but I don't know any other way of moving around this place if the main doors are closed. I think we will have to wait untll our little pegasus is going to wake up."

From the end of the corridor, came the sound of howling and barking

"Are you bucking kidding me?"

-oOo-

"Prisoner, you are not in a situation where you can pull the rope too much. State your complete name and identification number" said the zebra again, looking at the green coated and blond maned stallion that they had saved.

"And I say you don't need it! Just call me Mister Moneybags and cut the bullcrap, zebra." growled the pony, staring at the zebra sitting in front of him.

"How long they have been arguing about that?" moaned Cobalt Rain to McGash, while sitting against a wall of the cafeteria.

"Half an hour, more or less." answered the griffin, while cleaning the arrows he recovered from the dead bodies of the two griffin prisoners.

Cobalt moaned and moved his gaze to Silver Image: the mare was lying on the floor, her head resting on the pegasus's belly: after the fight, Masud had asked her the same things he was now asking to the other prisoner, and Silver Image had started crying, sending the zebra in panic and waking up Mister Moneybags.

Cobalt had managed to calm her, and now the mare was humming something, while passing a hoof through her mane.

"Are you ok Silver? Calmed down a bit?" asked the pegasus, trying to sound gentle. Not his style at all.

The mare raised her eyes, staring at him with those turquoise and scarlet orbs. "Yes…yes yes we are fine now…yes… thank you pegasus friend, you saved Money, and you saved Silver Image from the bad ponies… yes, yes you did…." She began giggling, rolling on the ground, and showing to the pegasus her cutie mark. Surprisingly, it was the same, but different on her flanks: on her left side, there was the image of a gold framed mirror with gems carved in the frame, while on the right side the image of the mirror was twisted and distorted, with a black spiky frame and red glass. Cobal felt a shiver down his spine.

"Ok, Moneybags will be fine for now." said the zebra, lowering his head in defeat. "Just follow us and don't try anything funny."

The earth pony raised an eyebrow "Are you taking me for an idiot? I want to get out of here alive, and staying in a good relationship with the only group of ponies that didn't try to kill me will improve the possibility of survival." scoffed Moneybags.

"Well…ok… Now: we will return to the office, so Nox can check Moneybags and Silver Imags injuries, then we shall organize to move forwards, and hope that Gizmo and Tool have repaired the genrator."

"Sounds like a plan to me." grunted the griffin, standing up and moving towards the cafeteria's exit, followed by the others. Masud was side by side with the griffin, followe by the giggling mare, and then Cobalt and Mister Moneybags

"Say Moneybags, where did you find her?" whispered the pegasus, trying not to stare at the mare's rump.

The earth pony looked at him with a bored expression. "In the asylum."

"Wow! I could have never guessed that." growled the pegasus, pointing a hoof at the mare's straightjacket.

"I didn't get the question then, kid." grumbled the green coated pony, trying to slip away from the pegasus.

"I mean, where in the asylum? Lost? In some restricted quarter? Also, why the hay were you in the asylum? Weren't you suppose to be in the jail, with that orange suit?"

"If I tell you that, you promise to leave me alone?" groaned the other one.

"Cross my heart and hope to die." said the pegasus, smirking.

"Fine! Since I was considered a non-problematic prisoner, I entered in a social readaptation program, that in my case meant been a janitor of the asylum. I was there when all this mess began. I was hiding when all those crazy ponies were running around like infuriated bees. When all the commotion was finished and I was going to run away, I found her." he pointed at the mare. "She was still in her cellar, confused, with her collar still on…"

"Wait, what collar?" asked the pegasus, confused: there was no collar on the mare's neck.

"I opened it a little later, when I found a magnetic card. That doctor didn't need it anymore anyway…" The pony mumbled something, before going on: "She was under intensive pharmacological treatment. The collar was crafted for injecting in all variety of stuff into her blood. I think that's why she is a little random right now… she is still under the effect of some drugs."

"But why was she there? What did she ha-"

"We had a deal kid, now zip it!"

"But I wa-"

Moneybags put a hoof on his muzzle. "Say another word and I will ask for the permission to beat the shit out of you."

"Agreed. A deal is a deal, Cobalt" stated the zebra, while the mare chuckled a little.

The pegasus groaned, before hearing the angry shout from the griffin. "And now why isn't this door opening?"

-oOo-

The elevator doors opened, permitting to the three ponies to exit and begin running along the footbridge that connected the second level of the prison to the third level elevator. In front of the group there was a unicorn in a security-reinforced suit, that left uncovered his black coated muzzle and his long blue-yellow mane.

"Come on lady, we are already out, only two more level" shouted the stallion, looking at one of the following ponies: a mature earth pony mare with a bright yellow coat and green mane, dressed in a lab suit.

"Easy for you to say Broken Jinx, I'm not young anymore…" grinned the mare, staggering a little. "Oh Celestia, all this running is making me dizzy…oh, thanks Blaze, dear." She smiled to the third pony, a withe-coated alicorn with a fire colored mane, that helped her to regain her balance.

"No problem mother…" smiled the alicorn. The unicorn said nothing, looking at the serial number on his flank, mere substitute for a cutie mark.

"Come on you two, we have to go on, we can't afford any more interruptions!"

The other elevator ringed.

They all turned, looking at the elevator's door. The alicorn and the unicorn lowered their horns. The elevator opened, and the silhouette of a pony got out, coughing and panting.

"Crystal!" shouted the mare, before running towards him: It was a black coated unicorn, dressed in an elegant red clothes, his silver mane messy and thorned, his flank covered in bloody slashes that barely permitted to see his cutie mark: a voodoo doll with two pins in it. His horn has been sawn off, leaving only a horrible scar on his head. He made a couple of steps, then tumbled to the ground. The mare reached him, taking his head between her hooves.

"Crystal. Oh for Celestia's sake, what have they done to you?" murmured the mare, tears in her eyes. The stallion gulped, beginning to speak in a tired manner.

"Listen… listen to me Sulphuric, I don't have much left…"

"Don't say that Crystal, we are going to help you just-"

"Let me finish…they are searching or our overseer magnetic cards…"

The mare's eyes widened, scared. "Wha..? they have taken yours?"

"Yes… they are searching for you… give my your card Sulphuric, I'll hide it in my body…they will never search for me again… you have to get…" he stopped, coughing blood all over the floor.

"Mother, we have to go." said the alicorn, looking with concern at the scene, while the alicorn was looking around scared.

"But I…he…we have to…" blabbered the mare, darting her eyes between the unicorn and her companions. Then, she silently took a magnetic green card from her suit, and hid it in the stallion's jacket's poket.

"Goodbye Crystal. I'll find Smooth Heart and hide the last card."

The stallion nodded and sighed. Then sighed again, before he began chuckling and stood up.

"Oh Sulphuric, I can't believe you really fell for that." grinned the stallion, while all the wounds and scratches disappeared from his flesh. "One of the most simple illusion spells, I can barely believe it. Thanks for the card, by the way."

"What? What's happening?" began the mare, just before beeing silenced by an energy beam that fired from the third elevator, hitting her in the chest.

The mare fell down without a sound, while the unicorn scratched a little bit of dirt from his suit. Broken Jinx's mouth was hanging open, while the alicorn was breathing heavily, his eyes locked on the dead mare's body. Crystal Horn looked at them, then waved his crystalline horn in the air. The two flinched a little, then fell down, snoring loudly. The unicorn smirked, then turned towards the elevator, and a big, big black coated pegasus stallion came out: he was taller than Luna herself. He lowered his wings where there were placed a couple of strange shaped cannons.

"Well done Plea." praised him the unicorn. "Now we have two cards, we just need Smooth Heart's and we can go on with the plan." The pegasus just nodded, waving his black mane.

"What are we going to do with them?" asked, pointing at the snoring unicorn and alicorn. Crystal Horn tapped his chin, than huffed.

"Is Zira with us?" he asked to the pegasus. In response, out of the elevetor came a flying metallic ball, with a little camera in the front.

"Of course I'm here sweety. Tell mommy Zira what do you need." the ball said with a metallic, mocking voice.

"The others. Tell me who is present on the second floor other then us" groaned the unicorn, looking at the sphere, as it emitted a buzzing sound.

"There is the grup lead by chief Masud, at the primary passage between the first and second level, while the group with Smooth Heart is moving towards the third entrance of this level."

"Ok, open it for them, then seal it." ordered the unicorn. "Any other presence?"

"Yes…there is a group of prisoners near the medical quarter, while on the shower's side…. I can't catch a clean image, but I assume it's the dollmaker."

The unicorn nodded again. "Well, that should be interesting. Plea, put those two in the second level. Then Zira will close the way. I want to see where this is going."

The pegasus nodded, then walked towards the unconscious couple and took them on his back, moving on to the door. The unicorn and the sphere stayed still, looking at him.

"Crystal Horn, is all of this really necessary? Can't you just take some of the prisoners that we hired, kill that stupid pegasus mare and take the card? We could be a lot faster."

The unicorn shrugged. "Probably. But all of this is for science. This is my biggest experiment for now… and a drill for what we are going to do"

"That's going to hurt a lot of ponies and not ponies, isn't it?" asked the sphere, floating lazily.

"Well, of course. But we have to be ready for some sacifices, for science."


	7. Second Floor

"Mgrmf…. Where…?" muttered the pegasus mare, rubbing her eyes.

"Well good day sunshine, sleep well while we were occupied killing hounds?" arrived Twisted Soul's mocking voice.

The mare's eyes widened, noticing the situation: they weren't in the office, they were in the middle of a corridor, and she was resting on Gizmo's back. Then she noticed that there were only Nox and Twisted Soul were here. And then she noticed that the ring around Twisted Soul's horn was gone.

"WHA? Where is your ring? Where is Tool Box? Where are the others? If you have done something.."

The unicorn sighed "Do you two mind explaining to her? I'm not in the mood."

-oOo-

"So… I was knocked out?"

"Exactly." nodded Nox.

"And he saved us from a shadow creature and some hounds?"

"That's right." stated Gizmo.

"And what could convince me that he didn't hypnotize you two into believing those things?" asked the mare, looking angrily at the unicorn, that just shrugge and continued to walk along the corridor.

"Twisted, we have to stop for little, so I can tend better to Smooth Heart's injuries." stated Nox, walking side by side with the other unicorn.

"You are supposed to let ME know those things, not HIM." growled the mare, trying to move.

Twisted Soul scratched his chin, completely ignoring the mare. "We just entered the second floor… and if I'm not mistaken there is a medicl quarter near… we would pause there yes?"

"That could be great." smiled Nox.

"Hey, hello? Am I invisible or something?" groaned the mare, then lowered her head on Gizmo's back, feeling dizzy.

The group continued walking in silence, while around them there was only the sound of the buzzing emergency lights and the dripping of water. The mare decided to stay calm, looking around, searching for possible threats. With two broken legs, that was the best she could do. Twisted Soul led them trough corridor after corridor, until at the end, until he stopped in front of a door with a red cross on it.

"Well, if we are not lucky. Not only did the hounds push us towards a second-floor entrance, but we have managed to arrive here without other incidents." murmured the unicorn, cautiously opening the door and peeking inside: the infirmary was apparently still in one piece.

"Well, now you can properly do your job, doctor." He said, grinning while Nox and Gizmo entered the room. The earth pony gently placed the pegasus mare down on one of the infirmeay bed, helping her to lie down, while the young doctor went to the cabinets, looking around for supplies.

"Ok, with a little bit of time I can fix this easily" he said, smiling as the mare that just groaned. "Now, now, miss Smooth Heart, that's not the right attitude. Be more positive."

"I could be more positive if I wasn't trapped underground in a facility full of dangerous ponies, closed in an infirmary with a doctor, an engineer and a psycho."

"My dear, if I were a psycho, they would have sent me to the asylum, but since I wasn't there…." growled the unicorn, stomping on the floor.

The two looked at each other with hatred, then averted their gazes, grumbling.

"There is no time now for my wounds. I want you two to look around the area and eliminate any possible threats, while Twisted Soul will stay with me." ordered the mare, looking at the others.

"Are you nuts? I am the only reason they are alive! You can't send them out there alone! This need to allways impose you authority is pathetic! There is no way I'll permit you to send our doctor and our last engineer outside alone!"

-oOo-

"At the end, why are we here outside alone?" asked Nox, looking around nervously, while the earth stallion was walking in front off him, his gauntlet on his hoof.

"I don't know. But it's better this way, I have to keep my mind of what's happened…" murmured Gizmo, walking slowly. The doctor just nodded, trying not to think of the fact that Tool Box was probably torn to pieces inside the generator room. He shooked his head, sending away the image, and continued walking. Suddenly, the sound of a shot sounded in the corridor, followed by screams of pain.

"What the…" the pair of ponies looked at each other, then began running towards the commotion, hidden by the shadows.

In the middle of a corridor, a unicorn was shooting from a floating rifle towards the door of what seemed to be a storage room. A big, translucent shield was around the unicorn, while beside him a tall, white coated alicorn had his horn glowing, looking with anger at the bullets shoted from a couple of gun barrels poking out from behind the door.

"Stop that! You are just making it worse for all of you!" shouted the unicorn, firing again.

"Just die!" shouted back somepony hiding behind the door.

"Blaze, can't you do something? I can use some help!" growled the unicorn, glaring at the alicorn. Blaze said nothing. "Well, thank you" mumbled the unicorn, shooting again.

"Look! That unicorn there has the same uniform as Masud! He must be part of the guards!" exclaimed Nox, before waving "Hey! You two!"

The unicorn turned around, shooting a bullet two inches away from Nox's face. "Freeze! Don't try anything with that horn. I have been trained to constrain any unicorn's spell! Don't try to help your companions!" he shouted, pointing the rifle towards Nox and Gizmo.

"I think they have finished their ammo, Broken." stated the alicorn, looking at the door. There was a second of silence, then the door flew open, and a group of ponies charged outside. Broken Jinx juped in surprise and shot on the group without aiming. An earth pony with a cream coat and a deep blue mane fell on the ground, lifeless. Broken tried to reload the rifle, but an enormous zebra in a prisoner's suit was suddenly over him, hitting his muzzle. The rifle fell on the ground, as the unicorn used his magic to grab the zebra and launch him over the wall. Two pegasi were over the alicorn, who initially tried to shake them off. When they persisted, hitting him with their hooves and a switchblade, he just aimed with his horn and burned alive the first one, engulfing him in a bright orange aura, while hitting the second with one wing, sending him to the floor, and finally smashing his neck with his hoof. The remaining prisoners flinched a bit, but then continued to charge: a unicorn tried to hit Broken Jinx with a green beam from his horn, and the other unicorn contrasted it witha scarlet one, his face contorted in concentration. At the same time, four earth ponies charged the alicorn and managed to push him on the ground, beginning to hit his body.

"I think they would appreciate our help." stated Nox, grasping a syringe and a scalpel from his saddlebag.

"Do you think?"

The pair jumped out, surprising the four earth ponies and hitting two of them, pushing them away from the alicorn's body. One of the ponies raised up his forelegs, mooving his hooves in a boxing way, facing Gizmo: he rose up after a moment as well, and began fighting with the other one. Nox charged the other one, waving his scalpel through the air like a sword, slashing at face of another earth pony. The last two were pushed away by the alicorn, standing up again.

"Thank you, civilians." murmured, and then his horn lit up again and the two earth ponies in front of him fell down, their bodies covered in horrible scortch-mark. Nox nodded, bloking a hit from the pony in front of him, and with a quick movement cut his jugular. In the same moment, the unicorn that was fighting with Brocken Jinx fell on the ground, his horn shattered in tiny bloody pieces.

"Tsk… I'm trained for these things." grunted the unicorn, walking towards Nox. "After all, you don't seem to be inmates. Are you members of the staff?"

Nox smiled, while behind him Gizmo and the last pony were engaged in a brawl. "We are backup from outside, I'm Nox, and that pony is Gizmo Fidget. We were scouting the floor. We actually are with other ponies, I'm sure that they can-"

With an uppercut, Gizmo hit the other pony's jaw, releasing a shower of sparks from his gauntlet. The earth pony fell on the ground, unconcious. Gizmo stood up, looking at the fainted body for a couple of seconds. "Well… It seems he had…" He took a pair of shades from his saddlebag, putting them on. "...a shocking experience."

From below the facility, a "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!" was heard.

-oOo-

"What was that?" asked a starled Crystal Horn, looking around. The metal ball buzzed a second, then answered with her mocking voice.

"Nothing to worry about. A stupid invention in the lab. We created it to make that sound when someone in the area says a cheesy joke"

"Oh…ok…and why did you do that?"

"I don't have the slightest idea."


	8. The Doll Maker

Cobalt Rain woke up. He didn't remember falling asleep. Last thing he remembered was walking with the others along the corridor, the noise of the ventilation system and the faint lights of he corridor. Nothing unusual.

"Well well, wakey-wakey sleepy head!" singsonged an unknown stallion's voice.

The pegasus opened his eyes, trying to move: his forelegs were bound to something metallic and raised in the air. A chain, maybe. He looked around: he was inside a shower complex, chained to one of the tubes on the ceiling. Alongside him there was , unconscious and without his orange suit.

"Well, hello there." cheered again the voice. Cobalt Rain raised his eyes: in the center of the shower room where they were, there was a metallic table from the cafeteria, where McGash was chained, belly up and struggling, with a knot of cloth around his beak. Behind the table there was a smiling stallion unicorn with a dull green coat and a short, darker green mane, hidden partly under a green deflated top hat where there was stuck a series of sewing needles. He was wearing a patchwork suit, made from peaces of jail's suits, asylum's straightjackets and other clothing. Five or six candles lit the area, which otherwise would have been completly darck.

"I was afraid that someone was going to miss another of my works… my my, that would be a shame." snickered the unicorn. The griffin struggled, trying to say something. The unicorn just hit him in the head.

"Now now, calm down. I know you are happy, but please contain your enthusiasm, and soon you will join our friends." He smiled him, pointing with the other hoof to the side of the room. Cobalt looked in that direction and immediately felt the need to vomit: in a darkened corner of the room, there were McGash's lizards and Masud, their throats cut and their bodies chained upside down by their hindlegs, to help the blood pouring out from their wounds down the shower drain.

"They will be ready soon, they will be wonderful dolls!" chirped the unicorn, levitating a scalpel and a pair of rusty scissors. "You know, it's a long time since I'v done a Zebra doll. But also since I made a griffin one. So my feathered friend, you are next."

"Who the buck are you?" shouted the pegaus, trying to free his forelegs.

"Now, calm down, or the blood will splurt like crazy when I cut you." said the unicorn happily, waving a hoof. "I'm Button Eye, but people just call me the Doll Maker. Because that's what I do, I create dolls." He smiled softly, and leaned against the griffin. "Now, if I remember correctly, griffins have arteries in their wings, as well as in their legs and neck. I'll cut there, ok? To not damage your gorgeous feathers."

McGash tried to roar, but only a muffled sound was heard.

"Marvelous!" chirped the unicorn, then lowered the scalpel to one of the griffin's wings, beginning to cut. Cobalt moved his gaze away, disgusted and panicked, trying to ignore the muffled cry of pain from the griffin.

"The buck…" grunted the earth pony, opening his eyes. "The buck is this!" he exlaimed looking at the chains. "The buck is that!" he exlaimed looking at the zebra's lifeless body. "The buck are you!" he exlaimed looking at the unicorn, who that looked ut at him as he stopped his cutting.

"Another spectator! How delightful!" he cheered, clapping his hooves.

"Buck you, psycho! Where the hay is Silver? What did you do to her?" the green stallion growled, looking with disgust at the unicorn.

For the first time, the dollmaker flinched, narrowing his eyes. "Silver Image? Who may that be? I only found you in the corridor, after I gassed it."

"You gassed it?" asked the pegasus. Every second keeping him talking was another second of life for the griffin.

"Well of course. You don't seem to know me." chuckled the unicorn.

"Oh crap! You are that sick pony, the doll maker! That mass murderer that skinned ponies and used their hides to make dools!" exclaimed Mister Moneybags, struggling in the chains.

Cobalt just looked terrified: that's where he had heared the name of the doll maker, a serial killer of Hoofington that had captured and skinned his victims, and used their hides to craft dolls. After a pony of the scientific police had bought a doll for his daughter he had analyzed it to assure himself it wasn't made of toxic materials, and just discovered that it was made from natural pony hide. After that, Cobalt had heared that the police had sent two ponies to check. When they failed to come back, they sent an entire squad, and discovered the doll maker occupied with skinning one of the police mares, while her colleague was watching.

"Now now, time to finish this before it become messy." The unicorn smiled, and he lowered again the scalpel again.

"Wonderful…escaped from the prison and from a bunch of criminals to end as a bucking doll." Growled the earth pony, moving his gaze away.

Cobalt gulped. He was right.

Then he noticed a movement: in the shadows behind the unicorn, in one of the corridors of the showers, he saw Silver Image walking slowly towards them. The unicorn was too occupied operating on the griffin's wing to notice.

The mare walked slowly towards them, stopping only a few inches behind the crazy unicorn. Cobalt bit his lips: she wasn't the kind of pony able to kill somepony else. Maybe she could distract him, giving them time to get free. Yes, that was probably her plan.

The mare put a hoof on the nape of the unicorn's neck, and slammed his head on the metallic table. With a loud crack the tip of his horn broke, and the scalpel and scissors fell on the ground, while the unicorn emitted a cry of pain.

"You hurt Silver Image's friends." The mare stated coldly, kicking the unicorn in the belly. "You made her cry. No pony makes my big sister cry, except me." growled the mare, kicking the unicorn again. The dollmaker rolled away, yelping.

"Silver! Help McGash! He is bleeding out!" cried the pegasus, but the mare just ignored him and grabbed the scissors from the floor, while the unicorn climbed to his hooves.

"Well hello there missy. I presume you are the Silver Image that those nice stallions had named, yes?" asked smiling the unicorn, with a manic smile on his muzzle. "It has been so much time since I had a fighting doll. Well dear, why don't we play a little?" he grinned, raising the scalpel in his magic grasp.

The mare raised an eyebrow, without losing her cold and cruel expression. "Silver Image is my big sister. She is crying right now for what you have done to the nice zebra. And no pony hurts my sister's friends, except me. And you can just call me Stained Reflex. You know… when you will ask mercy." And with that, she charged the doll maker with the scissors in her mouth.

"My my, what a problematic mare you are…" chuckled the unicorn, and bowed his head: with a hiss, a puff of green smoke blew out from his hat, filling the area with thick, burning gas that made Cobalt's eyes tear up. He heard muffled screams, something hitting something metallic, and the sound of running hooves. When the smoke thinned, the unicorn and the mare were gone.

"Hay…this isn't going to end well…" grunted the green earth pony, beginning to sway his dangling body. With a strong push, he raised his hindlegs and hit the chains, dislodging them from the ceiling and letting the pony fall fre with a grunt of pain. He stood up, slipping his forelegs free from the chain.

"Crap! This isn't good" he murmured, giving a quick glance to the griffin: his breathing was fading, while blood continued to pour out from the wound in his wing. The earth pony moved towards Cobalt Rain, helping him to free himself from the chains. In the darkness sounded a mare's scream of pain.

"What's happening?" asked the pegasus, while freeing the griffin from his chains.

"Seems that Silver Image's little sis got on the loose" murmured Mister Moneybags, looking into the darkness.

"What…?" Cobalt began to ask, before the sound of something metallic hitting something else was heard.

"The tag on her cell door said 'acute schizophrenia…' I can see what they meant by that… I'm sure that was this Stained Reflex girl who stabbed that pegasus in the face, in the cafeteria. Let's just move out, we have to help this griffin!" growled the stallion, looking around.

The pegasus began putting pressure on the slash with his hooves, with little results. "We have to bring him to our doctor. Here he will die for sure."

"Well, good to know, but as I recall, the doors are shut!" groaned the other pony. Then he emitted a cheerful cry: he had found a pile of clothes, probably intended to be used as stuffing by the doll maker. He ripped them, and used the strips to bandage McGash's wing.

"That's the best I can do. We have to find a way to that doctor of yours, or this guy will be a goner in no time." grunted Mister Moneybags, taking the griffin on his back.

"Hey griffin guy, can you hear me?" he asked him, freeing his beak.

McGash emitted a groan.

"That's good. Now pal, It's imperative for you to talk. Just talk, let's us hear your voice." ordered the earth pony, beginning to gallop throught the darkness of the showers.

-oOo-

"Come out dearie… You'll be a wonderful doll" chirped the unicorn, slowly moving the scalpel as he looked around cautiously. "You have lost blood my dear, I can find you anyway. Just come here. I don't want to damage your gorgeous coat." The unicorn slashed the air, looking around. Nothing. Then he perked at a voice in the distance: "This is a bucking labyrinth!" That was the voice of one of his materials. He growled, turning towards the voice. He couldn't permit that!

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat…" murmured a voice in the darkness. The unicorn froze and tried to light up his horn, without result: the trauma was stronger than he thought. An impressive pain exploded in his flank: something had cut his flank, ripping away a chunk of flesh. He cried out in fear and pain, turning around.

" How I wonder what you're at…" murmured again the voice, and the Doll maker saw, in the faint light his horn was emitting, the scissors directly in front of one of his eyes. With a gushing sound, the blades penetrated his eye, followed by the mare that tackled the unicorn, beginning to stab his face while humming her little song.

The Doll Maker shouted and with a burst of strength pushed the mare away, then stood up, grasping his scalpel, and charging the mare. The two landed again on the ground, beating and biting each other, wielding their blade carelessly as they cut each other. Eventually, the unicorn pushed the mare against a vent duct, slamming her head against the metal.

"You cursed slut! You have ruined everything!" he shouted, hitting the mare's face again. In fact, he hit her so hard that a plate of the vent was smashed, falling in the duct, followed by the sound of metal tearing. Evidentrly below in the duct there was a propeller to change the air. The mare grinned, then hit the jaw of the Doll Maker with her hindlegs, stunning him, then she grabbed him by his suit, lifting him and throwing him behind her, into the duct. The unicorn shouted and managed to grab the edge of the space he had created, smashing the mare's head against the duct.

"Please! Please please help me! I don't want do die! Please! I'll give you a doll, I promise!" blabbered the psycho, crying in fear, while under him the propeller was swirling frantically. The mare tilted her head, then approached, grasping the scissors.

"Strugle struggle little bat…" she murmured, raising the blades above her head. "…Because I really don't give a buck!" shouted, planting the edge of the scissors under the unicorn's hoof. The Doll Maker shouted in pain and let go, falling towards the fan with a cry of pain and fear.

-oOo-

"She must be here, the shouting was from this direction." stated Mister Moneybags.

"But what if she is nuts? If she tries to kill us?" asked the pegasus, running at his side.

"I don't think that's the case" he murmured, pointing forward with a hoof: the weeping silhouette of the mare was walking towards them, tears running over her muzzle covered in blood. She was dragging the bloodied scisor in her mouth, and Cobalt noticed with an twitch of disgust to the little piece of flesh stabbed in it: a round piece of green fur, with the image of a sewing needle: the Doll Maker's cutie mark.

"Are you ok Silver…?" asked the green stallion cautiously, looking at the mare. She just nodded, rubbing her eyes. Cobalt noted a series of slashes on her flank.

"Ye…yes… we have to move…for the grumpy griffin…yes…" she murmured. "I saw the exit. We should search for friends…" she pointed her hoof. "It's that way."

Mister Moneybags nodded and began running, followed by Cobalt Rain and Silver Image. While they were running, the pegasus had the sensation that Silver Image was humming something: " Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat, How I wonder what you're at: Up above the world you fly, Like a tea tray in the sky…"


	9. Rest

Cobalt Rain rolled over in the bed where Nox had sent him when he, Mister Moneybags, Silver Image and McGash had managed to find their way to the infirmary, finding all the rest of the group, plus an unknown unicorn in a security suit and a strange white alicorn with a number as a Cutie Mark. He didn't even try to catch their names, he had just ran on the bed where Smooth Heart was laying, and reported everything. And now, he couldn't sleep: half because he was thinking about Tool Box, and the other half for the faint whimpering comming from the bed of the pegasus mare. She hadn't taken Masud's death well, curling up under her sheets and crying for over an hour.

"Just one day…and we have lost two ponies…" muttered the pegasus, sitting on the bed and looking around: he moved his eyes towards the door of the surgery room, where the lights were still on: Nox and Twisted Soul were still inside, tending to McGash's wing. He could save him, he said…

Cobalt Rain moved his eyes through the dark room: on his left side there was, tucked in another bed, Gizmo Fidget, snoring loudly, as the unicorn that they had found, Broken Jinx or something, that mumbled in his sleep.

On the floor, the alicorn was motionless, maybe asleep. He seemed like a statue, breathing faintly. Then there was Moneybags, curled on a mattress on the floor, under a fluffy sheet, and at his side Silver Image was….

"The hay is that mare?" whispered the pegasus, jumping off from the bed. She wasn't under her sheets. The pegasus looked around: she was nowhere to be seen. Then the pegasus noticed that the door of the infirmary was sligltly open.

-oOo-

The mare was in an open cell, sitting on the floor and humming sweetly to herself, crafting something with her hooves. The pegasus looked at her for a couple of seconds, before approaching slowly, trying not to startle her. "I don't think that going around all alone could be a good idea." He stated.

The mare turned her gaze to him, smiling weakly. "I needed to stay alone with my sister…" She murmured, rubbing her foreleg.

The pegasus nodded with an awkward smile. "Yes, I can guess…"

The mare smiled and returned her gaze to the void. Without knowing what to do, the pagasus sat on the floor, looking at the mare. She was murmuring to herself in a particularly creepy way, with a light tick in her eye.

"Sometimes, I hate her, I just want her to go away…" she murmured, looking at the wall. Cobalt just sat there. What else could he do?

"She killed so many, just because they were nasty to me. I was scared, even if she was trying to help me. And she hates me now, because it's my fault that we are here. But I was just scared!" whimpered the mare.

"Hey, calm down, ok? Just be calm. You… err… two, have to cooperate ok? In this situation two sisters like you can't fight each other. You have to stick toghether, and stay with us to get out of this mess all in one piece." Said the pegasus, leaning towards the mare, trying to calm her down. Silver Image whimpered, and suddenly hugged the pegasus, crying on his shoulder. Cobalt looked around without knowing what to do, before awkwardly patting the mare's back.

"Lower that hoof and I'm going to cut it off." Growled the mare. The pegasus gulped.

-oOo-

"Are you ok, miss?" whispered Gizmo Fidget, looking at the covered mess that was Smooth Heart.

"That's the most stupid question that you could have asked." Cried the mare back, from under her blanket.

The scarlet stallion bit his lip. It had been stupid, indeed. He decided to try again. "I'm sorry for Masud…he was a nice guy."

"…he was, wasn't he?…" murmured the mare.

"Were you two like…err…"

"Kinda…" answered the mare to the unspoken question. "We just were… we can say friends with benefits. But I really liked him. He was a cool guy." Her head perked out from the blankets. "He was so strong. I was never expected to see him going like that."

The red stallion stayed silent, looking at the ceiling. That was the seme impression he had: the zebra had been strong and nice. Kinda a gentle giant. Yes, that was the impression. And now he was gone, in a puff. Killed by a psycho in his sleep.

"We have been here for like, just one day, and we have lost two ponies…" he murmured, looking at the dark ceiling. "is there going to be more backup? More help from outside? I mean, we have to keep everyone who's still alive safe, and alone we can't do that…"

"I don't know… I hope that the sunny bitch will help us… but I really don't know…" murmured the mare. They rested silent in the darkness, eventually falling asleep, dreaming about zebras and backup.

-oOo-

Nox closed the doors of the surgery room, huffing in relief. They had saved him. McGash was a strong and well built griffin after all. He would probably be weak for days, with all that blood loss. But at the end they stopped it. The unicorn huffed again, and looked into the dark room.

"Where is Cobalt?" he asked to nopony in particular.

"He went after Silver Image." Grunted Moneybags, rolling under his sheets and pointing at the door with one hoof. The unicorn huffed and darted out of the door, closing it behind him.

The room remained silent for a couple of minutes. Then silently, the green earth pony slipped out from his "bed" on the floor, and walked slowly toward the surgery room. He opened the door silently, peeking inside: the griffin was laying on a surgical bed, snoring a little. His wings were spread open, one of them heavily bandaged. On the other side of the room stood Twisted Soul, who was throwing out a set of bloodied scalpels and bandages.

"Also a doctor, after illusionist, gangster and serial killer?" asked Mister Moneybags, closing the door behind him.

"Well, a little bit of knowledge in medicine is essential, if you have a job like mine." Answered the unicorn, without turning. "So Moneybags, honestly I never expected to see ayou gain."

"Same here, you damned bastard." Growled the earth pony, scratching the ground with one hoof. "It's your fault I'm inside!"

"It's YOUR fault we're both inside, Moneybags." Sighed the unicorn, turning towards him. "If you and your stupid mobsters didn't attack our hideout, beginning a fight…"

"You kidnapped three of my ponies to use them in your damned experiments!"

"You entered my territory."

"You used them for your sociopathic experiments!"

"They proved to be useful."

The earth pony roared and charged the unicorn, slamming him back onto the ground. "They were foals, you damned bastard!" he shouted, hitting the other stallion in the face. Twisted grinned, spitting a little bit of blood.

"What are you gonna do, Moneybags? They are closed up in a nuthouse, you know that?" The earth pony roared again and hit the unicorn again, and again, and again. Twisted Soul just began giggling, while one of his eye was turning in a violet color and the rest of his muzzle became covered in bruises.

"You sick fuck! I'm going to fucking kill you!" shouted the stallion, raising again his hoof. Suddenly there was a blast of azure magic, and the earth pony was pulled away from the unicorn: in front of the door stood Broken Jinx, his horn lowered and sparkling.

"Freeze, both of you." He ordered, aiming his horn at them. Twsited Soul stayed still on the floor, while Moneybags stood up, glaring at the guard.

"Get out of here dweeb, it's not a matter of your concern."

"Indeed it is, since I'm a guard, and I have to make sure that prisoners don't kill each other."

"Guard of what? Of a dead prison? Just get lost."

"I'm warning you." Growled the unicorn, with his horn glowing. Moneybags looked at him for a couple of seconds, before huffing and exiting throught the door, slamming it behind him.

Twisted Soul grinned, pressing a hoof against his face. "If you don't mind, I'd like to tend to my eye."

-oOo-

"Am I interrupting something?" asked Nox with a smirk on his face, looking at the mare hanging from his friend's neck.

"Ha-ha. Help me to get her in bed." Huffed the pegasus, while the mare just giggled.

"No really, if I'm interrupting anything…" smirked the unicorn, holding in his laughter.

"Shut it, you are only jealous 'cause I'm more appreciated by the mares."

"Ugh! That was low." Laughed Nox. "Are you two ok? I was worried sick."

"We are fine, we are fine." Growled the pegasus.

"Cobalt, carry me!" cheered the mare, jumping over the pegasus. He whimpered and continued walking, with the giggling mare on his back, while Nox was laughing at their side.

A shadow slid along the wall, following them.


	10. Awakening

"Sooo… what were you two doing?" asked Nox, looking at his pegasus friend and the mare on his back.

"Nothing. We weren't doing anything." Growled Cobalt Rain, rolling his eyes.

"Come on, tell me, you know I won't judge you." Snickered the unicorn. The pegasus just mumbled something while walking. Nox chuckled, before casually turning his head behind, attracted by a glint of light. One of his ears was suddenly cut off.

The the unicorn's cry of pain echoed through the corridor, as Nox raised a hoof towards the bleeding stump of his ear. Cobalt turned, looking fearfully at his friend, while Silver Image jumped off from his back: in front of them, on one of the wall of the corridor, was the shadow, one of his hindlegs raised, a long black claw poking out from it.

"Run!" shouted Cobalt Rain. Gizmo Fidget had told him about the shadow that killed Gear Box. The mare sprinted towards the suffering unicorn, sliding under him and placing him on her back, before starting to run behind the pegasus. The shadow screeched, and began following them, sliding on the walls.

"We have to lead that thing away from the infirmary!" shouted the pegasus, flapping his wings to help his running.

"Then where?" asked the scared mare, that even with a grown unicorn on her back had managed to reach Cobalt Rain.

"Don't know! Just run!"

"We have to get in a dark place quick!" squealed Nox, trying to stop the bleeding from his ear.

They ran through the corridors, with the costant screech of the shadow behind them. Suddenly, the passage in front of them opened, showing a walkway suspended over a sea of darkness, while in front of them there was only a little platform, where there were a couple of elevator doors built into the wall. One of them was open, showing the little elevator cabin, lighted by a little bulb. In front of the elevators there was the lifeless body of a mare in a lab coat.

"In the elevator!"

"That's not such a good idea, I think…" murmured the mare, while running over the metallic walkway.

The pegasus darted inside, followed by the mare, who harshly putted down the unicorn before slamming the doors shut. Cobalt flapped his wings, rising towards the ceiling of the elevator, and slammed his hooves against the bulb. With a rain of sparks, the elevator went pitch black.

There was a hiss from outside, and the door began to open. The three ponies held their breaths, when suddenly there was a screetch, and the door closed again.

"See…? It was a good plan. He can't enter into areas without lights." Cobalt exclaimed proudly in the darkness

"Yeah…that's true… we have met that thing before, you know?" sounded the voice of Nox, who was trying to catch his breath. "Buck, that's hurting…" he murmured, probably pressing a hoof to his ear.

"I wasn't talking about that…" answered the mare. "I was talking about closing ourselves in a sealed cage suspended over nothing."

The three stayed silent for some seconds, when suddenly they heard above them a low screech and the noise of wobbling metallic cables.

"Oh, come on! No no no no…" pleaded the pegasus, before the elevator trembled and suddenly dropped down at high speed.

-oOo-

"We coudn't find them." Stated Broken Jinx, looking at the mare. "Blaze and I have searched all over the nearby corridors. We just found this." He said, raising a ear lobe with his magic grasp. The mare bit her lips, rubbing her forehead.

"So what, we have to assume that the mare went crazy and killed them?" she asked, dropping her head on her pillow.

"No way. Silver Image is fine, and if they didn't try anything sneaky, Twisted Reflex wouldn't have any reason to come out!" exclaimed Mister Moneybags.

"Even if I'm sure you all think like me that the opinions of a pony like Moneybags have to be taken really lightly, since his IQ…"

"Throw yourself under a train, monster!"

"… I think that his diagnosis is correct. Silver Image is a pony sane of mind, except for the parasitic personality that she can't control. But from what I can say after analyzing her, she would only be a threat to those who are a threat to her original personality. So, if Cobalt Rain and Nox didn't do anything stupid…"

"Ok ok, I got the idea… any other ideas?" growled the mare.

"Maybe hounds…?" asked scared Gizmo Fidget, remembering his previous experiences with the modified diamond dogs.

"We would have heard their barking. And also, there were no such tracks… honestly, there was no traks at all." stated the unicorn guard, tapping his chin. "The problem now is that we lost our doctor… prisoner 188018…"

Twisted Soul huffed, annoyed by his prison's code.

"…Is unable to perform complex operations."

"What about you alicorn? Can't you use your fancy magic?" asked the mare to Blaze, who was standing behind the group. The alicorn blinked, seemingly surprised to have been addressed.

"I'm an infantry unit without a specialization, ma'am. I've been implemented with four basic spells: two offensive spells, one for single target, one for damages over areas, a shield spell and a generic healing spell. It's good for everything, from poisoning to broken bones. But since it's so generic, it's also weak. I can help units on the battlefield, but I'm not of the medic breed."

"What the hay is an alicorn doing here anyway?" asked the mare to no one in particular.

"He is the only survivor of a military project. Did you hear about the changeling attack against Canterlot, some months ago?"

"I heard rumors. So?"

"The Princesses authorized the creation of soldiers to use in an eventual war against the changelings. Those alicorns are created with genetic materials coming from pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies, and also griffins, maximizing all their qualities. The labs managed to create three healthy breeds of alicorns, after a great number of failures. But with the jailbeak… all the samples are gone, except Blaze, the only full generated one."

"Next question: why the hay do you know all of that stuff while I, one of the overseers ofthe facility, don't know that?"

Broken Jinx shrugged.

"Ok… now… changing the subject… you said that Crystal Horn was searching for our magnetic cards?"

"What magnetic cards?" interrupted Gizmo Fidget, looking at the mare.

"The magnetic card that was given to every of us overseers. Together, they are supposed to open the door to the three last levels of the labs, the storage area…"

"So…this Crystal guy is searching to enter one of the most secured levels of this place, to get access to only-Celestia-know what?"

"Basically, yes." Nodded Smooth Heart. "This sucks. We have to contact the outside, ask for help. I can't believe this…"

"How? We can't go up to the office of the first level, the doors are closed." Stated the red stallion, scratching his head.

"We can try with the asylum radio station. After all, the elevators are working." Said Broken Jinx.

"The elevators are what now? Wasn't there supposed to be a blackout?" exclaimed the mare, darting her gaze to the unicorn.

"Well… yes…"

"I give up!" groaned the mare, pressing her muzzle into her pillow. "Let me sleep a little more. We'll see what to do later, considering that McGash has to recover."

"I don't know why… but I have a bad feeling about all of this…" murmured Mister Moneybags.

-oOo-

"Uh… son of a manticore…" growled Cobalt Rain, moving out of the elevator. The cabin had emergency brakes that had worked wonderfully to slow the fall, probably saving their lives, even if now the cabin was ruined.

"Are you two still in one piece?" asked the pegasus, looking back.

"We are ok…" muttered the mare. "But I think your friend here was knocked out." she said, dragging out from the debris the unconcious body of Nox.

"He's alive, just fainted." Said the mare, looking at the pegasus's face.

"If we are in the asylum, there must be some rooms for the doctors, right?"

The mare nodded. "Yeah, they have all a room in the first floor. They spoke about that during the sessions." She said, grabbing the unicorn and putting him on her back. The pegasus nodded and began walking, followed by Silver Image. After a few minutes, they arrived in a long corridor, with doors on both sides.

The mare managed to smash one door with a kick, revealing a small, simple room.

"We'll stay here." Stated the pegasus, while the mare put the unicorn on the bed. "When he's recovered, we will figure out what to."

"Ok…" murmured the mare, sitting on a big, green sofa on the other side of the room. The pegasus sealed the door closed with some forniture, before joining Silver Image. The mare looked at him in a strange manner.

"You know… we weren't doing anything strange, in that cell…" she mumrmured, looking at the pegasus.

Cobalt Rain looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Yes. I know, I was there too."

"I…I mean… that's strange, isn't it?"

The pegasus blinked. Suddenly the mare pinned him down on the sofa, covering both of their faces with her mane. The pegasus tried to struggle, to no avail. The strength of the mare was overwhelming.

"I mean… because there are some needs that a mare needs to satisfy, once in a while…and closed in here, it was impossible…"

The pegasus blinked in realization. "Oh…" His wings opened with a "sproing" noise.

-oOo-

Deep down beneath them, in front of an enormous console, there was a zebra, tapping on a keyboard She was looking at a central monitor, where there was, enlarged, the view of a security camera. The enormous black pegasus behind her was looking at the monitor too.

"We have to record that, too?" asked the zebra, without moving her gaze.

"We have to record everything that could be useful for Crystal's experiment, Zira, but I'm sure he will allow us to make some copies for ourselves."

"Yeah…" muttered the zebra, looking at the monitor. "What kind of position is that?" she asked to the pegasus, pointing a hoof towards the image.

"The twirled typhoon. Only pegasus can do that." answered the bored the black pegasus.

"That's cool…" murmured Zira, looking at the monitor, as if hypnotized.

"Enjoying yourselves?" asked Crystal Horn, walking towards them.

"Yup. Some low quality porn." Huffed the pegasus, turning towards him. The unicorn looked at the screen, scratching his chin.

"Mh… It's not desperate, as they are going to die in two hours, and plus one of the two is a sexually-repressed prisoner. So yeah, good old low quality porn." The zebra mumbled something, her eyes glued to the view.

"I can do better than that." huffed the black pegasus.

"Problem is that you do that only with fillies. That's why you are here, isn't it Plea?" asked the unicorn, placing his eyes on him. The pegasus flinched a little under his gaze.

"It's not my fault they're so cute…." He mumbled, looking at the floor. The unicorn just huffed, before moving his gaze toward the metal door: a loud screech was heard, and the shadow slid under it. With a swirl, it crossed the floor and placed itself under the unicorn, connecting its legs with Crystal Horn's. The unicorn smirked: his shadow was back.


	11. Bad doggy! bad!

Nox opened his eyes, yawning. A faint pain in his ear reminded him what was happened. Now he just had to figure out why he was on a bed instead that in the elevator debris. He raised his head, looking around: he was in a little room. He was on a bed, there was a furniture sealing the door, and on a green sofa there were Cobalt Rain and Silver Image, snoring slightly. The pegasus was opening his eyes too, raising his head and stretching his wings. Then he noticed Nox's gaze.

"We weren't doing anything!" the pegasus exclaimed, suddenly fully awake.

"Well, of course not." Stated Nox, raising an eyebrow. "There is only a bed, so it's obvious that you both used the sofa to sleep."

"Yes. Of course, there is no other reason we are sleeping next to each other!" exclaimed the pegasus, with a sheepish smile on his face. Silver Image chose that moment to yawn, open her eyes, raise her head, and kiss Cobalt's cheek, nuzzling his neck.

"Morning Coby…" she muttered, kissing him again.

The pegasus looked horrified as an enormous, devious grin appeared on the unicorn's muzzle. "Uh… hey Coby… I'll remember that…"

Cobalt huffed, parting from the mare and jumping to the floor. "I'm hungry. Is there a cafeteria on this level?" the pegasus asked to the mare, ignoring Nox's repressed laughter.

"Don't know. We get our food in our rooms. Maybe there is for the doctors, though." Answered the mare, sliding off from the sofa.

"Ok, we'll search it, but we'll not move deeper than this floor. Then we shall find a way to return to the others. Clear?"

"Okey." Smiled the mare, trotting towards the furniture and beginning to push it aside.

"Understood… Coby." Snickered the unicorn, and he had the satisfaction to see a blush on the pegasus face.

-oOo-

"I hate cold beans for breakfast." Grunted Moneybags, looking at the can in his hooves.

"Too bad honey, that's what there is." Grunted Smooth Heart from her bed, before taking a sniff of her can, making a disgusted face.

"They aren't the best." Admitted Broken Jinx, gulping a bite of beans. The only ones that seemed to enjoy the food were Gizmo Fidget and Blaze, both of whom were happily gulping the contents of their cans. The mare looked at them, half-amused half-disgusted.

"They surely have aan ppetite… or a bad sense of taste." Noted Twisted Soul, exiting from the surgery room. "McGash is stable and still asleep. I used only a simple hemostatic spell, since I don't want to risk worsening the situation. We have to get Nox back."

The mare nodded, gulping a bite of beans. "You're right… we have to find the others, I don't want to have any other deaths on my conscience. We'll move in an hour, and search for the others."

"Wait, what? We can't move McGash, it could be risky. And you will not be on your hooves for another day. You have to wait until that spell Nox used on you fixes all your bones."

"Actually sir, if it's necessary, I can take both the griffin and the pegasus on my back. I'm trained to carry the weight of two big adult earth ponies. They won't be a problem at all." stated Blaze, lowering his can of food. Smooth pointed at him while looking at Twisted Soul with a triumphant expression. The unicorn shrugged.

"Suit yourself." He grunted "Is there another can of food, perhaps?" Moneybags launched a closed can of food at the head of the unicorn.

After an argument between the two, that ended with the intervention of Broken Jinx and Gizmo Fidget to divide the pair, Smooth Heart was slipped over the alicorn's back, and over her was placed the sleeping body of McGash.

"Why can't I stay on top?" she groaned, pinned by the heavy griffin.

"It's better if we keep the griffin's wing free and without weight on it." Said Twisted, adjusting McGash's body on the alicorn's back. "You are ok, alicorn?" he asked then to Blaze, who just nodded.

"McGash could have come in handy right about now. He is supposed to be good at following tracks, after all." complained Gizmo Fidget, putting on his saddlebag, and following the Alicorn outside.

-oOo-

"I have to remember that trick, next time I'm without bits in front of a vending machine." Said Nox, laughing a little. Silver Image smiled, lowering the leg she had used to smash the machine to send a shower of snacks to the floor.

"I don't think your friends in the army would appreciate these tactics." Snickered Cobalt Rain, picking up a snack and beginning to eat it.

"What do you know Coby, maybe they will." Mocked the unicorn, while the mare giggled, biting into a sweet stick.

"Let's get going." growled the pegasus, while the mare leaned against his side, nuzzling his neck.

They walked silently for a bit, eventually reaching the end of the corridor, wich ended in a big, metallic, circular door.

"That reminds me off the door at the jail's office" stated Nox, looking at it.

"I sure hope so. At least, we could have a little bit of shelter." Agreed Cobalt, looking at the door before opening it with a grunt: the room they entered was indeed similar to the one they had seen at the jail's first level, even if in this one, there was a severed orange legs laying on the floor.

"Ok… well… at least there is only that…" gulped Nox, touching his ear. Silver Image moved away her gaze, while Cobalt just ignored it and looked around, finding what he was searching for: an intercom system.

"You know, that's reminds me of something I noticed…" stated the unicorn, lifting the leg in his magic grip and walking towards the incinerator tube. "Smooth Heart said that the prisoners killed the guards and the reserchers, right?"

"Yes, something like that." muttered Cobalt, tapping the console of the intercom.

"Then why didn't we cross any corpses?"

The pegasus turned towards the unicorn, a puzzled look on his face. "That's a good question… you are right, we were supposed to find ponies slaughtered everywhere… well, I'll ask Smooth that question, then… if this thing works…" There was a buzz, and suddenly the intercom was on, the text "[Jail Infirmary" displayed on the little screen.

"Hey there! Anypony? It's Cobalt Rain!" nearly shouted the pegasus in the little microphone. There was the sound of static, then a gruff voice replied:

"Is it really you kid? Man, you got lucky, we were about to leave."

"Moneybags, we are in the office on the first level of the asylum!" said Cobalt, looking at the intercon. There was a confused sound of voices, then the voice of Smooth Heart sounded through the device.

"Stay where you are, we are coming to get you. What the hay happened, anyway?"

"The shadow, it attacked and-"

"Okay, got the picture. Second question,: how the hay did you find a way to activate the intercon system? Why am I the only one saying that there was supposed to be no ener-" With a buzzing noise, the device died. The lights flickered, and some of them turned off.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Growled the mare, looking around. "Does that mean that now there is no more energy? The hay!"

"I don't understand either…" grunted the pegasus, pressing a hoof on the dead device. "It's kinda like somepony powered off the area." Then his ears darted up: he could hear the faint sound of barking.

-oOo-

"Buck, it ran out of energy. Well, at least we know where to go." muttered Smooth Heart, patting the alicorn's back to signal to leave the room. Outside, the other ponies were waiting, looking nervously around.

"Problem, sir? You seem nervous." Asked Blaze, looking at Broken Jinx. The unicorn was biting his lip, darting around his gaze.

"Hounds. A lot, judging from the barking." He answered, looking around. "I really can't say how far away they are, though… they are so muffled… it seems almost as if they are below us..."

With an explosion of barking, two tiles flew into the air, followed by three little hounds that jumped out from a maintenance duct. They were different from the Doberman hounds that Gizmo had seen. These ones were a lot smaller, sturdier, and had a flat nose.

They landed on the floor and darted towards the group. Two of them leapt, but were pushed back by a golden globe of magic that surrounded the ponies, while the third one was hit on the nose by a flying kick from the green earth pony.

"Come on fuckers, there is enough Moneybags for all of you!" he growled, walking towards the hounds. The one he hit was still rolling on the ground, his clawed hands on his bleeding nose., while the other two howled and charged again, before they were pushed back again by the golden shield.

"Can't you just kill them?" asked Smooth, patting the alicorn's neck.

"I have been ordered by commander Broken Jinx to protect you and the griffin, ma'am. I cant use both my defensive and offensive spells at the same time. But while I'll use my shield spell, the others can use their offensive abilities. It's a basic military strategy." Answered Blaze, staying still with his glowing horn raised. "I can enlarge the shield to protect everypony. On the downisde, it'll be weaker to heavier blows."

"Well, these are scouting hounds, pitbull race if I'm not mistake. They won't be a problem." Stated Broken Jinx, pointing his horn and sending a bolt of energy into one of the hound's chest. The dog-like humanoid was pushed by the spell and hit the wall, before faing to the floor and laying still. Moneybags leapt again over the still rolling hound, hitting his chest with both hooves, smashing it against the wall. The third leapt again against the group, but stopped at mid-charge with a dull expression on his canine face, while looking into the multicolored, shining eyes of Twisted Soul. The hound turned and charged the hound that Moneybags was beating. The earth pony managed to get out of his way before the hound pierced his claws into the other's chest.

"Hey! Watch it!" Growled the earth pony, glaring at the unicorn.

"So sorry, you were kinda in the way." Answered Twisted, grinning, as the hound he had hypnotized cut his own throat.

"Now… you said that those were your scouting hounds?" asked Gizmo, looking at the corpses.

"Yup."

"Then, if they are going feral, and back to a pack formed society as Is logical to suppose… doesn't that mean that they were just scouting the area, before the large hunting pack arrived?"

"I suppose so. The diamond dogs are usually organized in packs, yes. And even if their brains have been cleaned by drugs and magic, they are surely still guided by istincts, so…" Twisted Soul began to answer, just before a wall was smashed to debris and a bigger group of hounds darted into the corridor. Just to prove Gizmo was right.

There were at last four Doberman-hounds, their fangs bared and drooling. They were accompanied by two much smaller hounds, with a chihuahua's head. They would seem a little comical, if it wasn't for the green , unhealthy-looking slime dripping out of their mouths. Behind the six hounds there was a seventh, enormous hound, that had to stay bent to not hit the ceiling. It was a terranova diamond dog, the only one without a ferocious face. It was kinda sad. But the ponies were more focused on the fact that it just smashed a wall with its enormous fists.

Blaze turned, enlarging his shield to the entire corridor's widht. The six smaller hounds leapt towards him, but were pushed back by the shining shield. The terranova hound began walking slowly behind his companions.

"At this rate, I'm afraid I can't sustain the shield for too long." Stated Blaze, flinching. Broken Jinx darted to his side, sending a spark of energy into one of the Doberman dogs: it was thrown against the wall, but was on its feet in seconds, darting again against the barrier.

"take caution with the small ones. They got poisonous fangs. Paralyzing, in case of jailbreak." Said the unicorn, sending another spark of energy against one of the two smaller hounds.

"That part didn't work really well, did it?" scoffed Moneybags.

"Their collars weren't supposed to go off." replied angrily the unicorn, blasting again. Twisted Soul stepped up beside the other unicorn, gazing towards one of the doberman hounds.

"I'm afraid to say this, but my shield is not going to hold much longer." Stated Blaze, walking slowly backwards with a frown on his face.

"A few weapons could come in hoof right now!" grunted Moneybags, glaring at the hounds.

"There is an armory on this level…and where the hay is my rifle!" shouted the mare, while Blaze stepped back a little, pushed back by the strength of the hounds assaults. "Gizmo, Moneybags and Broken Jinx, run towards the armory and grab whatever you need. Blaze will keep the way closed for as long as possible. Twisted, can you..-"

"What do you think am I doing, idiot?" shouted the unicorn, his eyes still shining and his face contracted in concentration, as one of the hounds tried to attack the others.

-oOo-

Another loud noise boomed through the office, as the hounds outside charged the door again. Cobalt Rain pressed his body agains the door, darting around his gaze.

"Buck! How in Equestria are we supposed to stay alive without weapons?" he shouted, as another smash hit the door.

"You are just a pussy." Growled Stained Reflex through Silver Image's mouth. "Get out of my way. I'll take care of them."

"Don't even think about that! I won't allow you to put Silver in danger!" exclaimed the pegasus, glaring at the mare.

"Idiot! At this rate we are just going to die anyway!" stated Stained in her cold voice. Cobalt ignored her, while Nox dragged some tables over to barricate the door with. From outside came the sound of howling.

"Well, we are fucked. At least big sis will not die a virgin." Stated Stained, yawning. Nox emitted a hysteric laugh, while Cobalt blushed furiously. Then a booming voice was heard outside the room.

"I WAS TRYING TO SLEEP, YOU BUCKING PIECES OF GARBAGE!" it cried through a strong accent; it was followed by a series of howls and the sound of something chopping.

"Wait a minute… I know that voice…" murmured Stained, walking towards the door. "Get out of the way, Cobalt." She ordered, looking at the pegasus.

"No way, Stained, you stay here!"

The mare looked at him, then suddenly punched him in the face, sending the pegasus flying towards a desk. The she turned towards the door, opening it. On the floor there was the headless body of a hound, laying in a puddle of blood. Three more hounds had their back to the office, looking at a deep green unicorn with a spiky red bloody mane with some black hair in it. He was looking at the hound with his scarlet eyes, while his horn was slowly lighting up with a green aura.

"Oh shithead, it really was your voice." Snickered the mare, while jumping on the back of one of the hound, trying to choke him. The hounds were distracted again, as the mare broke the neck of the diamond dog swiftly and suddenly. That permitted the unicorn to finish casting his spell. With a gushing sound, the head of another hound was cut off by a little spark of green magic.

The last hound looked around, darting his gaze between the mare and the green stallion. He didn't notice the shining scalpel that sliced towards his neck.

"So, are you in a bad mood, Midnight?" asked the mare to the green unicorn, ignoring the last hound falling to the ground, gurgling. The unicorn looked at her, huffing.

"Sort of. Those bastards woke me up, but is almost dusk, so is ok, I guess…" He moved his gaze towards the black unicorn cautiously leaving the office, followed by Cobalt Rain, , who was slowly massaging his head.

"Are you ok, Coby?" exclaimed the mare in Silver Image's sweet tone, running towards the pegasus.

"Yeah… a little argument with your… sister…" he blurted. "Who's your friend?" he asked, gesturing towards the green unicorn.

She looked at the unicorn, and smiled. "He is Midnight Shadow. He is a friend."

The unicorn nodded, walking towards them. "Da. We passed time together in same program of nocturnal psychological session. Who is your new friends, Silver Image?"

"He is Nox." She pointed at the black unicorn. "He is a doctor. And this is Cobalt Rain. He's my coltfriend."

"Your what now?" asked the pegasus, but the mare ignored him.

"They are from outside. With others. They are going to save us." Cheered the mare, smiling at the unicorn, but he only frowned.

"And what will be of us? To be sent to another asylum for rest of life? " he asked coldly. The smile on the mare's face disappeared, as Midnight Shadow lowered his horn. "If this is what is to happen, I shall prefer to leave alone... and without witnesses.."


	12. Down Boys

"Why have those cameras gone off? What's happening?" asked Crystal Horn, leaning towards the console where the zebra was tapping away.

"It's not the power, I shut off only the supply for the intercom system. I guess the hounds I had spotted have broken them." She said, looking at all the screens. "I have visual contact with most of the facility, but now almost half of the jail's second level is obscured, like the fifth and the sixth levels."

"Shit! I told you to get rid of the hounds!" exclaimed the unicorn, turning and facing an enormous group of ponies, all of them wearing an orange suit. "They are the only thing not in my control in this experiment! They could ruin everything!"

"Well, so sorry smart ass, that we didn't throw our lives away for you!" grunted a blue earth pony with a green grungy mane hanging over his face.

"That was a direct order from me!" exclaimed the unicorn.

"Fuck you, why do we have to take order from a namby pamby doctor." Mocked the earth pony, triggering a fit of laughter from the larger group. Crystal Horn stiffened a second, but then he smiled, relaxing.

"That's a good question. After all, the fact that I have freed all of you doesn't give me any control over you." He said softly, walking in front of them. With a faint purple glow, he picked a hair from the earth pony's mane. "And of course, nor does the fact that I have sustained your lives by giving you food and weapons to defend yourselves from the mad ponies and the hounds."

"Yeah. That's right!" agreed the earth pony, smirking, watching the unicorn walking calmly away, as a little doll and needle were raised in Crystal's magic grasp. "You are just a freak with some stupid shadow trick!"

Crystal Horn stiffened again, the needle beginning to sew the doll, adding the hair of the earth pony. "It's not a 'shadow trick'. It's called 'wanaoishi kivuli' in the zebra's mother language." Zira nodded, and a group of zebras in orange suits murmured, apparently impressed.

"Who cares about your zebra's mumbo-jumbo. It's time you stopped ordering us around, and opened the gate for us." Growled the pony, stomping a hoof on the floor. The unicorn regained his composure, walking up to Zira's side, lowering the little doll in front of his face.

"Well, I willl need the help of all of you gentlecolts. But in your case, I think I can let you out, if you are so serious in your desire to get away." He said, smiling warmly.

"Well, good for me. Goodbye, losers!" snickered the blue pony, spitting at the rest of the prisoners, who began to growl.

"Yup, getting you out in the fastest and easiest possible way." said Crystal Horn, raising a big, black needle, and stabbing it into the doll. The earth pony fell to the ground without a sound, motionless, evidently dead. "Anypony else want to discuss my authority?" asked the unicorn, tossing away the doll and smiling to the crowd in front of him. The prisoners stayed quiet, except for the zebras, who bowed their heads, murmuring something.

"Very well then. You!" exclaimed Crystal Horn, pointing to a grey pegasus with a white snowy mane and an enormous scar on his face. "You are now in charge of this group. I don't want to hear complaints or fights, am I clear?"

"Yes sir! What are your orders sir?" exclaimed the pegasus, saluting.

"All of you. Go to the sixth level of the prison, and hunt down every hound you can find. It'll be risky, but it's necessary."

"Very good sir. Hey scumbags, did you hear? Move your asses!" shouted the pegasus, leading the rest of the crowd out from the room, soon leaving it empty except for Crystal Horn and Zira.

"You sure the hounds are gathering in that level?" the zebra asked, tapping on the keyboard.

"Yes… after all, their pack leader was locked at that level, guarding Plea, wasn't it?"

-oOo-

"You aren't going to do that." stated calmly the mare, looking at the lowered horn of Midnight Shadow.

"And what make you say this?" asked the unicorn, looking at the three ponies in front of him.

"Your spells have a long casting time. If you light up that horn, we can beat you unconcious four times over before you actually finish to preparing the spell. You are just trying to intimidate them, to get a promise of freedom or something." Said Silver Image, smiling sweetly. The unicorn looked at her for a second, before raising again his head and laughing.

"You know me well, babushka." He exclaimed, walking towards themBut I did have to try, did I not?"

"Of course." said the mare smiling. "Say Midnight, do you have a nice shelter? We are waiting for our friends to pick us up. If you want, you can discuss the future with them."

"This is exellent idea! Come on then, I have little hidden room in the bathroom of here. Is not Canterlot, but is better than nothing." He exclaimed happily, walking down the corridor.

"What the hay is his problem?" whispered Cobalt to Nox's ear, while following the hopping green unicorn in the corridor.

"Well… since he shared some sessions of therapy with Silver Image, I assume he has some problem or distortion of personality."

"Oh by the way." Midnight Shadow exclaimed, turning a little his head. "I am dividing it with another pony. She is… problematic. More than I, in any case."

"Joy…" muttered the pegasus, while the mare nuzzled him.

-oOo-

"I'm horrible!" cried a voice in the same instant Midnight opened the door, and a little plastic mirror flew over him.

"Shimmering dear, you are not horrible." He replied with a bored tone.

"You are just saying that!" cried again the mare's voice, as Midnight and his companions entered into the bathroom: a white unicorn mare with a long, straight and flat blue mane was crying on the floor of the bathroom. She was half covered by a by a straightjacket, but scars old and new were clearly visible on her flesh, badly covered by the candid fur. All the same, she was still a gorgeus unicorn mare.

"She is Shimmering Star… Shimmering, she is Silver Image, and these are her friends… they shall be staying with us for a little." the dark green unicorn said cautiously.

"You just find her prettier!" cried the mare, stomping her hooves on the ground.

"Great, another psycho… I really hope the others are having a better time than we are…" groaned Cobalt Rain, walking into the bathroom.

"So… what's her problem?" whispered Nox into the other unicorn's ear, while looking at the crying mare.

"As far as I know, she is fast to change mood. And she is masochist. I had to remove all mirrors from here; she would smash them and cut herself with shards. " Answered Midnight, closing the door.

"And you?" asked Cobalt Rain bluntly, studying the unicorn. Midnight Shadow looked at him blankly for a few seconds, before answering.

"Doctors say I have bipolar personality bound to time of day. Is advice: do not wake me during daytime, friends. " The unicorn smiled, as he sat back on the ground. Cobalt and Nox shared a glance, gulping.

-oOo-

With a grunt, Moneybags and Gizmo Fidget smashed open the door of the armory, followed by Broken Jinx, who immediately began to search around, in the crates full of weapons.

"We need something big and heavy… hay, there is nothing here!" grumbled Broken Jinx, darting inside the room. The two other ponies followed him, looking around.

"Maybe I can do something, I got a little bit of duct tape…" grunted the red earth pony, looking around. Moneybags just grabbed a long, black nightstick In his mouth, before darting away. He ran down the corridor, managing to rejoin with the rest of the group in a couple of minutes.

Blaze was still holding the shiled in place, even if he was slowly retreating, step after step. On his back, Smooth Heart was trying to fire against the hounds with her rifle, even if she was having some issues with a certain griffin.

"How dare you use me as a blanket! Get out from under me this instant!"

"Shut your trap McGash, I'm trying to aim here!"

"I don't care! Get out!"

"Shut your stupid beak, or I'll close it with a bullet!"

"Ma'am, sir, could you please lower the tone of your arguing? It's getting hard to concentrate on the shield." Stated politetly the alicorn, turning his head a little.

"Hush you!" shouted the mare, aiming again her rifle and shooting. With a bright splurt of brain and blood, one of the heads of the little hounds exploded. Two other hounds were on the ground, both of them with claw marks ripped in their flesh. Twisted Soul was beside the alicorn, panting and concentrating over another hound.

"Those simple animal brains… are hard to control…" he grunted, as his horn emitted some sparks. Moneybags jumped over him, grinning.

"Get out of the way then, sleepyhead!" he grunted, weaving his head while jumping and hitting one the last doberman hound in the head. The hound hit the ground with a whimper.

"I guess you opened the armory. Where are the others?" asked the mare, shooting again, and hitting the second small hound.

"Don't know. They are coming, I suppose!" grunted the earth pony, jumping again and dodging an attack from the last doberman hound, and hitting him on the side of his head.

The terranova hound looked over the scene, moving his enormous head slowly and looking at the corpses of his he howled. A loud, heavy and powerful howl. A moment later, he darted with surprising speed at the shield, hitting it with a paw. With a scratching noise, the golden barrier shattered into thousands of pieces, as the alicorn flinched with a whimper of pain. The mare on his back tried to aim with the rifle, even if her perception of where she was was still blurry after the deafening howl.

The second hounds shook his head and charged with his claws out at the earth pony, still dazed by the sound. Moneybags tried to fight back, but his steps were unsure. He tripped on his own hooves, before a purple grip grabbed him and pulled him away, leaving the hound with empty hands.

"Buck… my ears…" growled Twisted, sitting on the ground, the light around his horn fading away. Blaze, the only one apparently uneffected by the howl, quickly pointed his horn at the hound, engulfing it in flame. Then he rapidly turned again his head, summoning once more the golden barrier in front of himself and the others.

The terranova hound barked, charging again, hitting the shield with its oversized claws and smashing it apart again.

"Lower your head, Blaze!" shouted the voice of Broken Jinx from behind him. The alicorn immediatly obeyed the order, and six shots were heard from behind him. With a splurt of blood, the left shoulder of the hound was reduced to a bloody hole.

"The hay? Six shots? Since when can unicorns take telekinetic control over six weapons?" exclaimed Smooth Heart, trying to look behind her.

"Well, it's hard to do. But thanks to Gizmo, shooting with this sixbabies is so easy it's like stealing candy from a foal." Grinned Jinx, walking towards the alicorn: he was levitating six shotguns around him. They were stitched together three by three by duct tape, metallic wires and other devices Smooth didn't recognize.

"I just have to control two strings, instead of six triggers." Grinned the unicorn, aiming and shooting again: the hole in the hound's shoulder became bigger. Moneybags grunted.

"You just lost time customizing some weapons? Bah!" Then he ran over to the hound, jumping on his enormous arm and jumping then behind the hound's head, plugging the nightstick into one of its ears, releasing a splurt of blood and a whimper of pain. "Here, how is it, with someone playing with your sense of equilibrium?" He mocked the hound, jumping off of the diamond dog just before other six shots were fired, and the sad muzzle of the hound was transformed into an empty, bloody mask.

"So much for just a day of work." Sighed the unicorn, reloading his weapons.

"Let's get Gizmo and move." Grunted Moneybags, pulling loose the nightstick from the hound's head.

"Yup. He's still in the armory. He found a lot of stuffnot sure of what it's all supposed to do, but he was excited as a foal during the Summer Sun Celebration." Stated Broken Jinx, lowering his weapons. "Let's just move."

-oOo-

"This place was supposed to be hidden." Growled Cobalt Rain.

"Yes, from hounds, but I did not expect prisoners." Stated Midnight Shadow.

"Shut your traps you two!" growled the dark purple pegasus in the orange suit in front of them. Three other prisoners were looking with greedy eyes at Silver Image and Shimmering Star, both of the mares sitting against the far wall of the room..

"Keep your focus on the target guys. We can't afford any delay." Grunted a grey pegasus with a white mane and an enormous scar on his face. "We have a schedule to follow. Our group has to move ten minutes from now."

Two of the three ponies that were looking at the mares turned, with slight frowns on their faces. "Come on brony, you can understand usThis is the first time we have two fine pieces of mare under our hooves." exclaimed an orange earth pony with a long scar on his lip.

"I can understand. But we have to do as ordered. We can chain them up here, and have a little fun with them after the mission. How does that sound to you?" asked the gray pegasus, pointing at the mares. The other stallions nodded and agreed happily.

"Seven of them… armed… buck." Whispered Cobalt Rain. Indeed, the seven prisoners that had invaded the bathroom were all armed with deadly shotguns, except for the sole unicorn, who was armed with a strange weapon that at first sight reminded Cobalt of a trumpet. That thing didn't even have a trigger.

"So, chain those guys up, and we'll see what to do with them later." Ordered the pegasus, looking at his group. One of the ponies, the only one that hadn't stopped looking at the mares, emitted a little snorting noise.

"A quickie?" he asked, looking hopefully at the pegasus, who just huffed.

"Fine. Be quick."

The pony smirked, and looked at the two mares. Silver Image glared at him with an icy gaze. The pony gulped and moved his eyes over the other mare: Shimmering was rolling on the floor, blabbering something senseless and drooling all over the place.

"Do you think that she can understand enough to take something in her mouth?" asked the stallion, raising an eyebrow. The gray pegasus just shrugged. The pony huffed, grabbing the mare's tail and dragging her inside a partly smashed stall.

Cobalt was sure he saw a devious smile on the mare's face for a second.


	13. Mad Ponies Everywhere

A cry of pain came from the stall, followed by a gurgling noise. Cobalt Rain darted his head up, while their captors looked with trepidation at the stall, as a couple of them lowered their weapons.

"Here we go…" murmured Midnight Shadow. "Doctor, when I say so, smash all the lights." He murmured to Nox. The other unicorn nodded, loking tensely to the prisoners.

Then, the door of the stall opened. Shimmering Star walked out with a crazed smile on her muzzle, her lips and teeth covered in blood, as she held in her magic grasp the pony who had tried to rape her in front of her, a stream of blood flowing from between his hindlegs.

It wasn't necessary to be a genius to understand what had happened. The stallion's eyes were dilated in shock and pain, as a stream of tears flooded down his muzzle. The other prisoners flinched, disgusted and scared.

"Let him go and we'll kill you quickly!" growled an earth pony.

Cobalt Rain tensed. That surely wasn't the right thing to say to a psychotic mare in the middle of a rampage.

"Now!" shouted Midnight, and Nox obeyed, horn lighting up. With a series of little pops, the lights exploded, leaving the room in darkness.

"What are you trying to do?!" screamed the grey pegasus voice, before a scream of pain was heard, and the chaos began. A couple of ponies screamed, and a shotgun fired, lighting up the area for a second and showing shimmering Star jumping over an earth pony, a glass shard in her mouth.

Cobalt Rain grabbed Nox and pressed Nox on the ground; at the same moment Midnight's horn blazed for a second, and a gushing sound was heard, follow by something falling to the ground.

"Don't do anything stupid!" growled the pegasus to the medic, before looking around: the unicorn in the orange suit was a few steps far, concentrating on his trumpet-shaped weapon, which was beginning to emit a blue shimmer. With a growl, the pegasus leapt over him, slamming the unicorn to the ground. The prisoner startled lose his grip on the weapon and it fell to the ground, the shimmer fading away. It lit for an instant the sight of Silver Image jumping over the gray pegasus, as he tried to aim his gun.

-oOo-

"I heard that griffins were quick to recover… but hay, that was really quick." Grumbled Twisted Soul, watching as the griffin walked slowly in front of him.

"Well, of course. We are not small fries like ponies." Snorted the griffin, looking around. "Now, where is the griffin doctor that you found?"

"Who are you talking about?" asked the unicorn, raising an eyebrow.

"The doctor who fixed me. I doubt that any of you pedestrians has any idea of how to fix a wing." Said the griffin. Smooth Heart stuk out her tongue at his back.

"Actually, Nox and I fixed you." Growled Twisted Soul, glaring at the griffin. McGash seemed surprised for a moment, before shrugging.

"You got lucky then."

"Whatever. Anyway, the doll maker had reached your wing's tendons. They will need a little to heal, even with the help of spells. You can't fly for a while."

"Well, I suppose I couldn't expect too much from ponies." Huffed the griffin. The unicorn leaned towards the mare laying on Blaze's back.

"Can I break some of his bones?" he asked silently.

"Maybe later." Grumbled in response the mare. "For now, we have to move. When Gizmo arrives…"

"I'm here, I'm here!" shouted the scarlet pony, galloping towards them while adjusting his saddlebag, wich was evidently fuller than before.

"What were you doing in the armory that took you so long?" asked the mare, looking at him with with an annoyed expression.

"Well I was-"

"You can tell me about it another time. We have to move towards the elevators and descend towards the first level of the asylum. We have to get back the others, especially Nox. If we lose him... well, we could very well be screwed. Moneybags and Broken Jinx will stay in the front, McGash behind them… Jinx, give him a good weapon. Twisted, you stay with him in the center of the formation, while me, Blaze and Gizmo will stay in the back."

"Look how much she needs to take a grasp over the situation. That shows strong internal chaos, manifesting as a need for order." Snickered Twisted Soul. The mare hit him in the nape with the barrel of her rifle.

-oOo-

"Well, that was messy." Stated Midnight Shadow. In the middle of the bathroom were laying the corpses of the prisoners: a couple of them, victims of Shimmering Star, had been sliced and cut-up, one of them left without an eye.

"You don't say!" exclaimed Nox in a hysterical tone, as he tried to avoid the pools of blood on the ground. Silver Image cleaned hooves stained with blood and brain on a corpse's suit, before leaning towards Cobalt Rain.

"Are you ok Coby?" she asked sweetly to the pegasus. He just nodded, standing up.

"Let's get out of here." He said, walking away from the unicorn that he had suffocated with only his hooves. The three mad ponies exchanged quick glances, before following him. Nox darted out behind them.

"Oh… my mane is so dirty… I'm gross!" squealed Shimmering, looking at her gorgeous white coat, wich was stained with the blood of her victims.

"We shall find you a shower then." "said Midnight Shadow calmly, as if talking with psychotic, bloodstained mares was a typical activityfor him.

"I don't know… we should stay near the elevators…" mumbled Cobalt Rain. Midnight looked at him, leaning towards his ear.

"Do you think it's a good idea to meet your friends with a crazy mare on a rampage?" he whispered. Cobalt stiffened and nodded.

"Ok… uh… I'll stay at the elevator with Nox, while Silver Image will accompany you to the room we opened… there should be a shower." Groaned the pegasus. Midnight Shadow nodded, before following slowly behind the two mares.

"What do you think?" asked Nox to his friend, sitting on the ground. The pegasus huffed, sitting as well.

"That if we stay here much longer, we are going to be crazy too." He answered, his ears raised, ready to detect any possible sign of danger. The unicorn leaned on the ground, groaning.

"I hope we stay alive enough to appreciate our insanity, then." He stated, looking up at the dimly-lit metallic ceiling and the faint security lights above.

-oOo-

"So… how are they?" asked the green unicorn, looking at Silver Image. Silver Image raised her gaze from the floor, while from the bathroom came the dissonant, singing voice of Shimmering Star, as she cleaned herself under a stream of hot water.

"Nice… they aren't like the doctors here… they didn't drug me or anything. They are gentle. A little strange, but gentle." Answered the mare finally. "Even Stained said that she didn't feel any urge to kill them.."

"That is great thing, I suppose." Smiled the unicorn. "Well, is a relief... if they prefer to work with us, instead of injecting medicine into our systems, I shall surely work better with them too..." He was going to add something more, but suddenly he stopped, raising his ears. Silver Image heard it too: sound of dragging hoofsteps.

The green unicorn made a gesture towards the earth pony mare, before sliding off from the bed where he was laying, and rolling silently under it. With a slight jump, Silver Image hided behind the sofa where she had been sitting.

A couple of minutes passed, before a silhouette appeared in the doorframe, and an earth pony staggered into the room. His fur was a deep brown, even if it was almost impossible to notice that, since his body was for the most part covered in blood. The entire figure of the pony was dressed with barbed wire, wich surrounded it like a second skin. A trail of blood followed him as he entered the room, murmuring to himself.

"I heard you… I heard you…you…you… betrayer of the night…. Of the true queen…come out, betrayer, permit me to reedem you…." He gurgled, in a way that made it sound as if his mouth was full of blood too.

Midnight watched as his bloody hooves passed a few inches away from him. The pony rocked around, before turning towards the bathroom door. It opened, showing the gorgeous, wet body of Shimmering Star. The mare took a couple of steps, before noticing the bloodied pony in front of her.

They looked at each other for a couple of seconds, before the earth pony jumped over her, his legs spread. "Accept your redemption!"

The mare screeched as her horn lit up, and with a crash from the bathroom, a shard of mirror darted out, stabbing into the pony's neck. The strength behind it was enough to push him back a little, leaving him motionless on the floor.

"You… you freak! You could have stained my fur again! Admit that you wanted to make me look bad! You bastard! You son of a draconequus! You…!" screamed the mare, jumping around the motionless body, torn between the desire to smash his head in and worry for her hooves.

"Calm down Shimmering, he is dead." Stated Midnight, sliding out from under the bed.

"And by the way, you look smashing." Said calmly Silver Image, looking at the other mare, who just huffed.

"What was this thing?" asked Shimmering, lowering her head and sniffing at the body.

"Don't know. I think he was another patient of the asylum… anyway, he's not our concern anymore." And in that moment, the pony's body raised on his legs.

The mares' eyes widened while Midnight Shadow jumped back, startled. The pony looked around, gagging a stream of blood onto the floor. "You can't kill me… the real queen of the night gave me the power… You'll be punished…" He blabbered with a raspy voice, before jumping over Silver Image.

Midnight Shadow's horn lit up, and a green aura grasped the barbed wire around the pony and tossed it and its occupant into a wall.

"Can't you use one of your killing spells?" growled Stained Reflex through Silver Image's mouth, moving her glare between the mysteious pony and the green unicorn.

"So sorry missy! Those are stealth killing spells, I do not have the right concentration to cast them here!" he growled, shooting a green blast of energy toward the pony, which dodged and charged again. This time, it was Shimmering Star's grasp that took the barbed wire, and tossed him again against the wall. "He is not so bright, though." He stated, as the pony slammed again into the wall, leaving a blood splatter on the surface.

The pony glared at him, and charged for the third time. He jumped, and flicked his hooves. Shimmering Star grasped him again and tried to toss him again, but this time she found resistance: a piece of the wire had been looped around Midnight's neck.

The unicorn gasped, trying to breath, as some spikes carved into his flesh. Shimmering panicked beginning to pull on the barb-wired pony, while Twisted Reflex tried to grasp the wire with her mouth, trying to loosen the loop around the green unicorn's neck. It was beginning to get bloody as he tried to breathe.

There was a shot, and a bullet carved through the wall, a few inches away from the pony's head. "Get out from the way, idiots!" shouted Smooth Heart, reloading her rifle and aiming again. The earth pony's eyes widened, and he dropped the barbed wire, darting away, a second before another bullet hit the wall. He ran towards the door, startling a little Blaze, who stepped back and raised his neck and muzzle, protecting Smooth from any potential attack.

The earth pony just slided throw the door, beginning to run down the corridor. "Jinx, take that monster down!" shouted Smooth, as she tried to move her riffle and aim again. The unicorn nodded and ran after the fleeing pony, his two three-barelled guns held in his magic grasp.

Cobalt pushed aside Blaze, entering the room and darting towards Silver Image. Behind him, Moneybags and Twisted Soul entered slowly into the room, the first looking at the traks of blood all around, the second first looking at Shimmering Star and Midnight Shadow, and then looking at the snuggling Cobalt Rain and Silver Image. He grinned deviously, before moving his eyes back to the pair of unicorns. "You two. I have to check you, and make sure we can work with you, without needing to worry about having you two stabbing us in the back.."

"Just get them and catch back with the others. It's best to let Nox check on that wound." ordered Smooth Heart, pointing at the mark on the green unicorn's neck. "And then we have to first find a shelter, and second the radio station."

"Do you really think that somepony will come to our aid?" demanded Moneybags, turning his gaze towards her.

"I hope so." She said simply. "You have seen what there is around here. Alone, we are only going to see hard times."


	14. A normal, calm rest

The mare placed her hooves on the ground and took a couple of slow steps, testing her legs. Then she turned towards Nox with a smile on her face. "Very well done medic, an excellent job."

"Thanks Miss." Exclaimed Nox proudly, smiling at the walking mare. "After all, it's a good medic's objective to heal their patient as fast as possible."

"Then why can't I fly?" grunted the griffin, glaring at the medic.

"Because a surgical cut to the tendons is worse than some chipped bones. I have to work more with you." Answered the unicorn, trying to be polite. The griffin huffed. "I suppose it's a good idea to find the medical bay and stay there. Calm down a little. Relax."

"As if it's possible." Grumbled Broken Jinx, while at his side Gizmo was already praising Celestia.

"We need to collect our thoughts. And well… check those two." Said the orange mare, pointing a hoof towards Midnight Shadow and Shimmering Star. They both shrugged. "Now then, the medical bay. I know where that is, on this floor at least. Broken Jinx, do you know where the storage and kitchen areas are located?"

"Yes ma'am." Nodded the unicorn.

"Grab whatever you can, and join us at the medical base. Good news for everypony: there are going to be beds for all."

Gizmo raised his hooves in the air, joined by Cobalt Rain.

"Ok… Moneybags, you are with me." Ordered Broken Jinx, walking out of the little room they had occupied, trying to recollect themselves after the attack by the strange earth pony.

Moneybags groaned. "Why me? I'm not going to obey your orders, do you know that, right?"

"You are good at smashing things." Answered the unicorn simply. "I can use a little bit of help, just in case."

"Well… maybe you can use little bit of magical help, too?" asked Twisted Soul deviously, walking towards them.

"Whatever. Be back soon. And Twisted, no tricks." Ordered the mare, pointing her hoof. Twisted Soul just snickered, and hopped behind the other two stallions.

-oOo-

Broken Jinx's horn glowed, opening the metallic door of the storage area, walking inside and slowly raising a weapon in front of him. The storage area was empty, except for a pegasus' corpse in an orange suit, a spatula sticking out of his skull..

"Clear." Called the unicorn, lowering his gun and entering into the room, allowing his companions' access.

"Oh, I knew him, he was inside for murdering his boss." Stated Moneybags calmly, noticing the corpse. Twisted Soul snickered and passed over him, looking around.

"They already scavenged this place. I doubt there is going to be a lot of stuff here."

"Grab whatever you can." ordered the other unicorn, snooping around. Moneybags grunted and walked towards an open crate beside a cooking table. He looked inside, and grabbed a couple of cans with his mouth. He noticed a shimmer at the edge of his eye and the earth pony rolled away just before a couple of knives fell down the table, stabbing the ground where he had been stending a few seconds before.

"Twisted!" he growled, lowering the cans.

"What?" asked the unicorn, with a completely unconvincing innocent face.

-oOo-

Nox pressed with his magic grasp a piece of cotton against Midnight's neck, then began to bandage it. "Luckily nothing severe. The spikes just pierced the flesh, but didn't cut any important veins. You got lucky." He said, dismissing the dark green unicorn, who nodded and walked towards the bed that he had claimed as his own.

Beside him, Shimmering Star was laying in her bed, while Silver Image was combing her mane, humming calmly, waving a hoof to Cobalt Rain from time to time. The pegasus waved back, while in front of him Gizmo Fidget was showing him the load of light weapons he had managed to retrieve from the armory.

On the other side of the room McGash was laying in his bed, his wings opened, while complaining about the fact that he was supposed to be the main patient of the doctor. And beside him, Smooth Heart was trying to press a pillow over her ears to drown out the incessant complaining of the griffin.

Blaze was guarding the door, his vigilant eyes scanning the corridor, his ears perked for any sign of danger.

"We are here." Grunted Jinx's voice, catching the attention of the alicorn: the guard was walking towards the medical bay, with a crate full of cans swaying on his back. Behind him, the other two stallions were following: Twisted Soul had a hoof mark around one of his eyes, while Moneybags had a charred mark on his flank.

"What's happened, sir? You were attacked?" asked Blaze, stiffening his muscles, ready for action.

"At ease Blaze, it's all calm. Just a certain prisoner trying to beat another one to death." Huffed the unicorn, glaring at Moneybags.

"He tried to kill me!" shouted the earth pony. Twisted Soul just chuckled.

"The only thing I saw was you trying to beat him to death." Growled the unicorn. "Now, both of you, get in. And Moneybags, let Nox check that bruise. I tried to not hurt you much… but well, better let him look at it anyway."

The earth pony entered inside the vast room, growling something. Twisted Soul followed him, hopping happily, despite the violet mark around his eye. Broken Jinx glared at him, before gesturing to Blaze to come closer.

"Sir?"

"Keep an eye on him. I don't trust him one bit." He whispered to the alicorn, who nodded.

"Very well sir. I'll be ready to report any signs of strange behavior from the prisoner." Stated Blaze calmly. "But for now, overseer Smooth Heart ordered me to guard the main entrance of the medical bay."

"That's fine, that's fine…. Just keep an eye on him."

-oOo-

Smooth Heart opened her eyes. She didn't have a great internal clock like the crazy green unicorn, but she could say that she had slept for at least three hours. Probably outside Celestia's sun was shining in the sky.

"This place is messing our habits." She thought, while beside her, the griffin was snoring loudly. She was tired, but now that she was awake, she wasn't going to sleep again soon. She slid silently from the bed and slowly walked out the room. Maybe she could stay up with the alicorn outside. She walked silently towards the door, slid it open, and left the room, failing to notice the faint movement from Twisted Soul's bed.

"Hey, how's it going?" the mare asked, trotting up to Blaze. The alicorn was standing outside the doors to the large common room the group of ponies was using as their refuge, leaning on the wall and staring off into the distance. The corridor was dim, the blackout had caused most of the lights in the ceiling to blow, leaving few left to illuminate the hallway. "Are you ok?"

The stallion's ears twitched as he heard her approach and turned his head to look at her: his eyes seemed blank and empty. "Yes ma'am, I'm fine." he answered, moving away from the wall to stand to attention, his back straight and his head held high. "My body isn't experiencing any abnormalities of any kind, as I haven't sustained any form of injury so far." The mare gave Blaze a confused look.

"Do you always talk like that?" she asked, tilting her head slightly and giving Blaze a quizzical look.

"Pardon me, but i don't understand your question." The alicorn answered. He looked the mare up and down before tilting his head in the same manner as the mare's, his features copying the mare's facial expression.

The mare blinked, Blaze blinked. "What I'm asking is: do you normally talk so formally?" Blaze straightened his head, but his exact copy of the mare's confused look remained on his face.

"This is how my mother taught me to speak. Am I causing some sort of problem by talking like this?"

The mare straightened her own head. "No, no. Not at all"

"Very well, then." Blaze raised his right hoof and tapped it against his flank, just over the serial number that acted as a substitute for a cutie mark. With a faint beeping his coat opened up to reveal a metallic compartment. Within was a packet of cigarettes, a small photograph, and a necklace. Blaze pulled out the packet of cigarettes and placed one in his mouth: a moment later, his horn glowed slightly and a small flame appeared at the cigarette's tip to light it up.

A faint trail of smoke went up from the cigarette's orange glowing tip, lazily rising up to the ceiling. The alicorn took a puff of the cigarette and then it glowed slightly as he used a small amount of magic to levitate it in the air, it was shortly joined by the cigarette packet.

"Is there anything I can help you with, ma'am?" he asked.

"Everypony else is asleep and resting, so how come you're still awake?" the mare asked "I was just wondering what's on your mind." Blaze took another puff on his cigarette before answering.

"You ordered me to guard the door. And sleep isn't necessary for me, ma'am. I've been designed to last for extended periods without needing to sleep, so as to increase my combat effectiveness." Blaze took another puff. "In addition to that, I find achieving sleep difficult. How can anypony simply stay still for so long? I find it difficult to conceive how anypony could willingly waste time by sleeping." the mare smiled and chuckled gently, and Blaze frowned in confusion "I don't understand. What is it about my statement that you find so amusing?" The cigarette floated back down to the right side of Blaze's mouth, where it remained, glowing orange and

red.

"Oh, nothing." The mare reached up to the levitating packet of cigarettes, plucking it from midair and pulling out one of the cigarettes within. She placed it in her lips and looked up to Blaze, who stared blankly at her. "Erm...would you light me up?" Blaze nodded and his horn glowed slightly as a gentle flame appeared at the tip of the mare's cigarette, causing it to glow orange. "So..." she said, taking a puff on the newly lit cigarette. "Do you think we'll make it out of here?" Blaze frowned again.

"I don't understand, what do you mean by 'out of here'?"

"Out of the facility, to the outside world, to Equestria."

"What's an Equestria?" Blaze asked, his frown disappearing. "I've never heard of one before." The mare stared at him in disbelief.

"Equestria is the nation we live in, the nation you were made to protect." the mare said, and Blaze blinked.

"I was made to protect somepony called Celestia." he said. "Mother told me that she was the most beautiful pony ever." Blaze paused, and took a puff on his cigarette. "What does 'beautiful' mean?" The mare simply continued to stare: this alicorn was incredibly naive.

"It means she's very pretty."

"What does 'pretty' mean?"

"It means she's very attractive to boy ponies."

"What does that mean, if she's 'attractive to boy ponies'?" The mare sighed: this pony was hopeless.

"It means that a lot of guys want to have sex with her."

"What's sex?" the mare's mouth dropped open slightly.

"You have got to be bucking kidding me." she said incredulously. "There is no way you don't know what sex is! How old are you?"

"Three months, twelve days, nine hours, thirty eight minutes and eighteen seconds as of this moment." Blaze said, smiling widely. "My mother got me this to celebrate my second month." He tapped on his flank again and as the compartment opened up he pulled out the small necklace that lay within. It was a simple piece of jewellery, a chain made from fine links of silver metal with a small flame made out of some sort of orange gem in the centre. Blaze smiled happily at it and levitated it around his neck, fixing it into place with a faint clicking. "Mother said that this was what she wanted my cutie mark to be, but since I was part of the experiment I had to have a serial number instead" Blaze smiled again, but the mare felt slightly horrified, how could anypony smile at not having a cutie mark?

"Wait...you have a...mother? I thought you were grown in a tank." Blaze frowned slightly in confusion.

"Isn't that how all ponies are born? Mother told me that there was nothing different

about the way I was born. She told me that she loved me no matter how I was made."

Blaze paused for a moment and scratched at his chin with a hoof. "If I'm different, how are other ponies born? How are they made?" Blaze looked down at the mare expectantly, waiting for her answer.

"A foal is...'made'...when a mare and a stallion, who love each other very much, have sex."

"What is sex?" Blaze asked again. The mare sighed and scratched her head.

"You'll find out later, ok?" She flicked the cigarette from her mouth "I'm going to get some rest, I'll see you later, ok, Blaze?" The alicorn nodded.

"Goodnight." Blaze said as the mare disappeared back inside the common room. "Sweet dreams." he called out as the door closed behind her. Blaze paused and scratched his chin again. "What's a dream?" he said to himself.

-oOo-

Shimmering Star was nuzzling her nose into the soft pillow. The first soft pillow she had in years, to tell the truth. She turned, and lazily opened her eyes. And she began to shriek. At least, she tried, just before a hoof closed her mouth. Twisted Soul leaned over her, smiling wickedly.

"Now now, we don't want to wake all the others, do we?" he whispered. The mare's eyes showed fear, homicidal fury and a vast gambit of other emotions. The black unicorn leaned even further forwards, his horn lighting up with a purple light. Shimmering tried to use her magic, but suddenly the eyes of the other unicorn began to sparkle as a couple of multicolored spirals appeared in them, catching the mare's attention.

"You are in my power now…" said slowly the unicorn, as a creepy smile appeared on his muzzle.

Oo-oO

Thanks to Erol for providing me such good material for Blaze and Smooth's dialogue.


	15. Of Voodoo, present and past

"Twisted… are you… ok?" asked Nox, looking at the other unicorn's face.

"Yes? Why are you asking ?"

"Well… it seems like you put your muzzle in a mixer." Stated Nox, looking at Twisted Soul's muzzle wich was covered in cuts.

"Ah…err… I had a little argument with Shimmering Star last night." He said, looking away from the questioning look of the doctor.

"You did?"

"Yes… nothing important, really. We made peace immediately! Friends like before!" Twisted Soul stated. Shimmering Star walked up beside him, kicking his neck. "See…? Friends like before…" wheezed the unicorn, forcing a smile. The other one shrugged and walked away, towards the rest of the group. "Next time I try to enslave somepony to kill Moneybags, better restrain them…" grumbled Twisted Soul under his breath, following the young doctor.

"Good morning everypony." Nox said, smiling warmly to his companions, receiving some greetings himself.

"Goodnight would be more correct, with the time, but well, the concept is the same." Snickered Midnight Shadow, walking up to his side.

"Hello there! Breakfast for all!" cried Gizmo Fidget happily, looking at the cans in front of him.

"What do we have?" asked McGash, rubbing his bleary eyes and yawning.

"Cold beans or banana jelly!"

"I just stopped wondering why the looters didn't take those cans." Groaned Broken Jinx, grasping a can of beans with his magic and walking away, soon imitated by his companions. At the end, only Gizmo seemed to be happy with his food (Beans with banana jelly), while all the others were performing a large variety of expressions to show their disgust for the meal.

"Well, listen up guys." Began Smooth Heart after gulping a bunch of beans. "It's my intention to get to the radio station present on this floor, to ask for more help from outside. I'll take Blaze with me, he should be sufficient as an escort, and Gizmo, in case the radio doesn't work." The addressed ponies nodded. The mare moved her gaze to Broken Jinx.

"Broken Jinx, you pick a pair of ponies, and do a round of this level, and secure it if necessary. Of course, it's a big danger, retreat, I don't need to tell you that." The stallion nodded.

"Let's try to return here in not more than half a day." Finished the mare. "The rest of you who stay here will be under…" She tapped her chin, thinking, before pointing her hoof towards Moneybags. "You. You have [responsibility for everyone staying here to guard this place."

"Woah, good, I get to stay stuck here following the orders of that earth pony!" groaned McGash, raising his beak from his can.

-oOo-

"Ma'am, I think it's better if I'm the one leading the way. In case of attack, I can protect you better." Stated Blaze, while following the orange mare down the dark metallic corridor, with Gizmo hurrying along at his side.

"Thank you Blaze, but I know how to defend myself." Growled the mare, walking slowly and aiming cautiously with her rifle into the darkness.

"Really? Since you managed to have your legs broken after an attack, I assumed the opposite." said the alicorn with surprise, and he received a grumble in response from the mare, while Gizmo giggled a little.

"Anyway, you are not for fighting other ponies. So it's better if I do that."

"… you are correct ma'am, I was created to fight changelings. But if my superiors are under any threat, I'm trained to intervene to the best of my ability."

"Why am I even talking to you?" grunted the mare, rounding a corner. "Here we are: I remembered correctly, the radio's station was not really far from the elevators." She said, grinning, looking at a big, green door that was stained with. Gizmo gulped.

Despite the blood, no corpse was present in the little room, and the radio was only partially stained. Whoever had been bleeding in that room, either it managed to run away, or its corpse was dragged out.

"What a peculiar radio. I rarely see anything so….particular." muttered the earth pony, examining it.

"You can make out with the radio later. Tell me if it works."

"Ma'am, I think your statement is incorrect. 'Making out' is the wrong term referring to action against an object." The mare blinked, lowering her rifle.

"I… now you have to correct the way I speak?"

"I was just trying to be of use, ma'am."

"I was being sarcastic with Gizmo."

"What is 'sarcasm' ?"

"Oh ponyfeathers…"

-oOo-

"Why are you dragging me around!? I'm still recovering, do you know?" whined the griffin, walking behind Broken Jinx, while at his side Cobalt Rain rolled his eyes.

"You don't need your wing to walk, do you?" grunted the unicorn, lighting the path with his horn. Until that moment, nothing had popped out to assault them, and the unicorn was hoping that they were safe.

"Are we going to find something other then padded empty rooms?"

"Are you going to shut your trap? If you are not prowling around you are annoying like crazy!" growled the pegasus. The griffin opened his beak angrily… and stopped. He closed it, and gestured to the others to stop.

"Group heading closer. Ten ponies. Coming this way." He stated, suddenly tense, darting his eyes around.

"All right, time to punch somepony in the face!" grunted the pegasus, flexing his legs and stretching his wings.

"We won't engage." Stated coldly Broken Jinx. "In this door, quickly!" he ordered, opening a quite different door from the others, with a black and golden frame. The griffin ran in, followed by a hesitant pegasus and the unicorn. As soon as the door closed, the sound of hooves was heard in the corridor.

"Hey Plea, what are we going do if all the diamond dogs are around the sixth floor, and the other groups have been mauled?" asked a raspy voice. A cold and bored one answered swiftly, while moving away down the corridor on the other side of the door.

"We'll just kill them all."

"But…"

"Trust me… I wasn't the only reclused to the sixth level just because I'm a filly molester, you know…?"

"That's the bastard that killed Sulphuric Base…" growled the unicorn. Cobalt saw his muscles tense, as he held himself back from darting out of the room and shooting like crazy against the pony.

"What kind of place is this?!" stated the griffin, forcing the pair of ponies to turn away from the door: indeed the room was… peculiar. It was clearly an office, but while the side walls were covered by an enormous bookshelf, behind the neat and perfect desk crafted from purple crystal, a set of zebra ritual wooden masks were hanging from the wall.

"This is chief psychologist Crystal Horn's office! I can't believe I didn't recognize the door!" said the unicorn in surprise, looking, looking around. The lights on the ceiling were functioning perfectly, emitting a strange green glow in the room.

"Those don't seem like books for a pony of science…" stated Cobalt Rain, looking at the books. "Super Natural, Guide to the Spirits, the Art of Voodoo… it's all mumbo jumbo good for zebras."

"And those masks are horrible!" added the griffin, glaring at the grinning masks on the wall, expecially the biggest one right behind the desk's chair, the only mask with its mouth open. "And he was the chief of the asylum?"

"Yup. He had some strange hobbies, other then planning something in secret from us all." growled the unicorn, peeking out of the door. "Clear. Let's get moving."

"Hey, there is something inside this mask's mouth!" exclaimed Cobalt Rain, pointing at the biggest mask. He reached his hoof in, before retracting it, screaming and jumping back: the mask's mouth snapped close, as a poisonous green shimmer lit in its eyes, as well as in all the masks eyes.

"What in the hay…"

The masks dislodged themselves from the wall, beginning to float around the three, while some sort of green smoky light began to flow out from their mouths and from behind them.

"What's happening?!" roared the griffin, trying to claw at one of the masks. The wooden face flew out of his range, joining the others and floating around the ceiling, looking with their green eyes at the group.

"I don't know, and honestly, I don't even want to!" screamed Broken Jinx, levitating one of his weapons and shooting at one of them. The wood chipped, but reformed itself in a second. The hit mask frowned and opened its mouth, emitting a stream of green flames in the unicorn's direction. He dodged, and the flames hit the floor, melting the spot where he had been standing a few seconds before.

"I think we might not want to be hit. I think." Stated Cobalt Rain, walking slowly backwards. All the masks growled, and began to open their mouths.

"Well… buck everything!"

-oOo-

"It's on." Stated Gizmo calmly, backing away from the radio and cleaning his hooves against his side. Smooth nodded and trotted towards the microphone, tapping it a little, before pressing a couple of buttons on the radio.

"Hey, can somepony hear me? This is Commander Smooth Heart, can you hear me?" she asked into the microphone, but the sound of static was the only answer. "Are you sure this thing is working?"

"Positive. I've done everything I could to fix it." Stated Gizmo. Blaze simply stared.

"Oi, this is Smooth Heart! There is fucking anypony on the other fucking side?!" shouted the mare into the radio.

"For fuck's sake, there is no need to shout!" answered a raspy, confused voice. "Report your status, Commander."

"Alive, more or less. We are broadcasting from the asylum's first level."

"Casualties?"

"Two: guard chief Masud and one of the reinforcements you sent. We need more backup."

"…negative, Commander."

"What do you mean with 'negative' ? We are going to be dead here soon."

"There is no intention to waste more lives for the facility. The princesses are thinking about a complete destruction of the site through spells, in the event that your team fails." The mare blinked.

"The buck?! They can't do that! Listen, the head psychologist is up to something, we need to-"

"We'll analyze the situation, and find a way to act. Stay ready to receive further orders." Stated the voice, before turning again to static. The mare roared and slammed a hoof into the radio, which cracked and began smoking with a low whistle.

"I… don't think I can fix that…" murmured Gizmo, looking fearfully the broken machine.

-oOo-

"What the hay happened?" barked the mare, in the same instant she entered in the medical bay: the ponies were all staring with terror at a bed, where a motionless figure was laying as Nox concentrated on his magic, a luminous glow surrounding the figure.

"We ran into some… problems…" stated Cobalt Rain, walking towards the pegasus mare and favoring one leg a little, some scorch-marks evident on his wing. "Some sort of magic protection device in the office of the Crystal Horn guy…" The mare glared at him, without saying anything. "Well… we managed to get out of that room, retrieving some materials… but well, Jinx got hit protecting McGash." The mare pushed away the pegasus and ran towards the bed: on the soft sheets was laying the motionless body of the unicorn, freed of his body suit.

Half of his flank was scorched, as well as part of his neck. He was unconscious, mumbling something under his breath as Nox moved a ball of healing magic around his flank.

"How is he?" she managed to ask, without moving her gaze from the charred flesh of the unicorn. Nox sighed.

"Stable, for now. The burns are bad, but he can survive. I'm most worried about this." He sighed, raising Broken Jinx's eyelid: the unicorn's eye was shining green, with a faint trail of green smoke rising from it.

"What's that?" asked the mare, looking scared as she backed up a little.

"I think some sort of illusion spell. That's why he hasn't woken up yet." Stated the medic sadly, continuing to tend to the scorches. "I don't know if his mind can resist."

"Yep, who knows…" snickered from a corner Twisted Soul, grinning. The mare turned, glaring at him, then she walked angrily towards him, bit his ear and dragged him to the bed, ignoring his yelps of pain.

"You. Fix him. Now!" she growled, leaving Twisted's ear and pointing at the motionless body of Broken Jinx. Twisted opened his mouth to reply, but closed it when he noticed Blaze's glare. He grumbled something and walked up beside the bed, lighting his horn.

"If he does something strange, call me." Stated the mare, looking at Nox, before walking to the rest of the ponies. "Ok, relax, all of you. Find something to do and relax, nothing is coming to do that to us." She said calmly, before leaning towards Cobalt Rain. "…Right?"

"I don't think… those…things can, they stopped when we got out of the office. We manage to retrieve this." Stated the pegasus, raising a group of unmarked videotapes. The mare blinked, then turned around.

"Is there a television here somewhere?"

-oOo-

The tape began with a little clicking sound, showing the inside of a clean lab room. The camera was placed probably in a corner of the ceiling, showing a mare holding a little something covered by a blanket, near a clean table.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" a voice over her shoulder asked, and the mare turned her head to see Crystal Horn standing behind her, his crystalline horn glowing faintly with a soft light. Sulphuric Base, the chief of the labs laying under the facility, smiled and turned her head back to gaze at the small animal in her hooves.

"'He' Crystal, not 'It', and yes, you're right. He is beautiful." Sulphuric smiled and gently cuddled the small foal held in her hooves, making a gentle shushing noise. "Hey there, little guy. I'm your mummy, Sulphuric Base." The colt she held wriggled within the warm confines of its soft blanket, eyes closed and a content smile on its young face. "He's so cute, just look at him." Crystal trotted up beside Sulphuric and gave the colt a quick indifferent look.

"He's turned out rather well, that's true. There don't appear to be any abnormalities with him." Sulphuric shot Crystal a look, Crystal raised a hoof defensively. "Hey, I'm just saying. There's been some problems before, remember subject D10005?"

"Yes, but that was years ago, and besides…" Sulphuric cuddled the foal to her chest. "He's perfect in every way, aren't you little guy?" The colt made a gurgling noise and began to nuzzle against Sulphuric's chest, searching for a point to suckle. The mare giggled and picked up a bottle of warm milk from the work table in front of her.

"Hungry little guy, isn't he?" Crystal said, chuckling to himself. Sulphuric smiled and gently placed the tip of the bottle against the colt's lips, and instantly the foal opened his mouth wide and engulfed the tip of the bottle into his mouth. The colt began to suck and the tip, gulping down the warm milk inside the bottle, the apple in his throat bobbing up and down with each swallow.

"That's it little guy, eat up. You're going to grow into a big strong pony, mummy just knows it."

"You are aware that he's going to be put straight into training, right? I'm afraid that you aren't going to be able to spend enough time with him to be his mother." Crystal laid a hoof on Sulphuric's shoulder. "I'm sorry, but that's the truth."

"No matter how hard they make him work, I'll always make sure this little guy has time for his mother." Sulphuric said, gently rocking the colt back and forth as he finished the last contents of the bottle. The mare took the bottle from the foal and placed it back on the table before she slowly placed the colt in his bundle of cloth on the table next to the bottle. She slowly unwrapped the blanket from around the colt until his tiny body was exposed: instantly, the foal's legs began to move about and kick as his body registered that it was no longer protected by the warm environment of the blanket.

"What a fine specimen." Crystal Horn said, trotting over to stand beside Sulphuric, who nodded in agreement. The colt's coat was a pure white, and his mane and tail were a thick mixture of reds, yellows and oranges that made it seem as if they were both made of fire. He was small, barely only a few hours old, but already the muscles in his legs had begun to grow, becoming more powerful as he grew. At the midpoint of the colts back where a pair of wings, and these stretched out and gave few tentative flaps as the colt lay on his back, beating at the air as the young pony instinctively moved every part of his body. In the centre of his forehead was a small horn of ivory with a triple helical spiral running down its length that glittered faintly as the colt unconsciously released magic, unable to control his magical abilities yet.

Sulphuric gave the young colt before her an adoring look and unknowingly laid a hoof around Crystal's neck.

"He's so beautiful" she whispered, Crystal nodded in agreement before he lowered the mares hoof from around his neck.

"He sure is, but now it's time for his first check up." Crystal's horn glowed and the colt slowly levitated into the air, but as he did so the young foal began to struggle and kick: a few moments later he was crying, his hooves reaching out in Sulphuric's direction even though his eyes were still closed and his wings flapping erratically.

"Give him back to me." Sulphuric said, and Crystal eagerly levitated the colt back into the mares hooves. Sulphuric gently hugged the colt against her, making a soothing shushing noise and rocking slowly back and forth, and slowly the foals cries died down to gurgles again. "There's no need to be scared." Sulphuric whispered. "Uncle Crystal just need to give you a little check, ok?" Crystal Horn gave her an odd look.

"Uncle Crystal?" he asked.

"Well, you're hardly father material." Sulphuric answered. Crystal rolled his eyes and sighed before he slowly levitated the colt out of Sulphuric's hooves: this time the colt didn't struggle.

"Ok, let's just test his motor control." Crystal said, his horn glowing slightly brighter than normal. Each of the colt's four legs moved one by one, slowly extending to their full length and then retracting back. "And now his wings." The colt's pinions slowly beat back and forth before they began to alternate their beats. "And finally let's check his magical capabilities." The colt's horn glowed brightly and a small burst of sparks appeared at its tip, the colt gurgled and smiled. "Well then…" Crystal said as he levitated the colt back into Sulphurics hooves. "Everything's checked out perfectly, this is one healthy colt." Sulphuric took the colt and hugged him gently against her chest again, smiling as she gazed down at the foal. "Hope you don't mind me asking, but what are you going to call him?" Crystal asked.

Sulphuric paused and thought for a moment, but then she took a look at the colt's flaming mane and the inspiration hit her. "Blaze. His name is Blaze." she said. At the mention of the name the colt wriggled slightly and opened his eyes, revealing two pools of deep blue that seemed bottomless. The colt smiled and his wings flapped happily.

"Blaze" he said in a gentle voice. The videotape clicked, and the scene disappeared into static. The ponies in front of the screen "daaawed" except for the griffin, who grumbled something.

"You were such a cute colt!" said Silver Image, smiling and turning towards the alicorn, who was looking at the television blankly.

"What does 'cute' mean?" he asked, frowning. Smooth Heart sighed.

"I do not understand…" muttered Midnight Shadow, leaning towards Moneybags and Gizmo. "Why the hay does Crystal Horn have this kind of videotape in his office, with such a powerful defense system to protect them?"

-oOo-

"Plea?"

"Here I am, Crystal."

"How's gone?"

"Two teams that we sent have been annihilited, and mine is half down. But we managed to slaughter the alpha. Always wanted to make that bastard pay for all the sleepless night he forced me to live with his howling."

"We have located the survivors. They got in my office and destroyed my masks, retrieving the tapes. Including the one with the formula. They also tried to contact the outside. I've had enough. The experiment is off. Find them, retrieve the tape with the formula, or destroy it, whatever, I remember it anyway, but if they understand something…. Kill whoever you want."

"Heh… roger that."


	16. knock knock

"Plea? Are you still there?"

"Yup. What is it?"

"Retrieve the magnetic card from Smooth Heart, as soon as you are there."

"Got it… oh, look at this…"

"What?"

"There is a pony dressed in barbed wire, bleeding all over the place, walking towards me with clearly hostile intentions."

"Oh, that was one of my patients, Grim Night. He's delusional paranoid schizophrenic, a believer and follower of Nightmare Moon. He was sent here after he sacrificed his own family to the moon. The labs used him as a guinea pig for an experiment, something about the modification of the spinal cord. And now he produces a ton more blood than needed. He needs to hurt himself to regulate the pressure of the blood in his veins. And also because he's a masochist."

"I didn't asked for the story of his life Crystal. If he attacks me, can I kill him.?" Huffed the pegasus on the other side. Crystal grinned.

"Of course. But don't forget the objectives."

"Don't worry… now, mister Grim Night…"

-oOo-

Broken Jinx lay silently on the medical bed, his chest rising and falling as he took shallow breaths. The whole right side of his flank had been badly burned as well as the right side of his neck. The pain he must have been through could only have been described as absolute agony. But thankfully for now that was over. Nox had worked his magic and given Jinx a healthy dose of anesthetic for the pain: all they could do now was wait.

However, for the ponies standing beside Jinx's bed, it still wasn't enough. Twisted Soul made a grunting noise as he concentrated on breaking the illusion spell had a grip on Jinx's mind, his horn glowing brightly. Everyone watched with baited breath (Except for McGash, but even he kept his beak respectfully silent). For another minute or so Twisted concentrated on breaking the spell apart, his eyes screwed tight shut. But then with a loud exhale of breath he opened his eyes and his horn ceased to glow. "It's tough, really tough." he said, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. "Whoever enchanted those masks knew what the buck they were doing."

"Can you reverse it?" Smooth Heart asked, a look of concern on her face.

"Of course I can!" Twisted said, giving her a mocking look. "But the question is: do I want to?" Smooth's face was suddenly contorted with rage.

"Why you little-" she began, but Twisted cut her off.

"Oh, what are you going to do, shoot me?" he snorted. "We both know that's not going to happen, you need me to get out of here." Twisted gave Smooth another devious grin. "I can do it but it'll take a lot of energy, and as it happens I'm tired." he yawned. "We'll just have to wait until tomorrow and see if I'm in the mood to do anything about it then." The unicorn turned to walk away to his bed, but before he'd even taken three steps something heavy and very, VERY strong slammed into him, Twisted screamed in pain and the ward filled with shouts of surprise. Whatever it was that slammed into him picked Twisted up by the scruff of his neck and threw him into the nearby wall.

Twisted shrieked in pain as the cuts on his sliced muzzle opened up again with the force of the impact and began to bleed profusely: he slid to the floor, groaning incoherently. "NO BLAZE, DON'T!" he heard somepony shout, before a powerful hoof grabbed his throat and hoisted him into the air, choking the life out of him. Twisted's vision was a blur but as everything came back into focus he gulped in what could have been fear.

Blaze was staring up at him with the angriest expression Twisted had ever seen anypony ever use. Whereas normally the alicorn's expression was blank and neutral, his face was now a mask of rage. His lips were pulled back to reveal a sharp set of canines that only beasts would possess and his deep blue eyes where seething with barely suppressed violence.

"Fix him." Blaze said in his neutral voice, which was disturbing given the amount of physical strength he had just used. Twisted tried to gasp for air.

"Buck...you..." he managed.

Blaze punched Twisted in the gut with his other hoof and then slammed him against the wall. "STOP BLAZE, STOP!" Smooth Heart shouted, fumbling for her rifle. Gizmo and Nox backed away whilst Cobalt and Midnight shielded Shimmering and Silver from Blaze's anger. Even McGash looked a little sheepish. Blaze punched Twisted again, this time even harder than before.

"I SAID BUCKING FIX HIM!" he roared. "IF YOU DON'T THEN I SWEAR I WILL BURN YOU ALIVE, DO YOU BUCKING UNDERSTAND ME?" Twisted made a choked sobbing noise and nodded. Blaze dropped him to the floor, his coat practically smouldering with anger. For a few moments he stared at the gasping pony on the floor, and then he turned around.

That's when he froze.

Smooth Heart had her rifle pointed straight between his eyes. The rest of the group had slowly back away, and was watching the scene unfold. "Blaze…" Smooth said, taking measured breaths. "I think you should step outside and take a breather, ok?" She pulled back the hammer on her rifle, locking it into place with a clicking sound. Everyone tensed, expecting Blaze to take his anger out on Smooth Heart. But instead the alicorn simply turned away and made his way to the door, following the orders of his superior.

"Thanks…" Twisted managed, but as he did so Smooth Heart pivoted and pointed the rifle at him instead.

"You." she said, as much venom in her voices as in Blaze's. "Get Jinx back on his hooves." She ordered, before lowering her rifle and walking away. Twisted Soul layed on the floor, while tears of anger, pain and humiliation were streaming out from his eyes.

"I'll kill you. I swear to Celestia, I'll bucking kill you!" he hissed, glaring with hate at the mare.

-oOo-

The alicorn outside the room was laying motionless against the wall, but even if his face was again expressionless, his brain was examining again his actions. Why he had reacted in such a violent way to Twisted's words? He must have recognised them as a threat to his superior's safety. And he obviously reacted as he has been taught: eliminate the threat. But his reaction had been excessive, compared to what he was supposed to do in response to a 'possible mortal threat by uncooperative prisoners'.

"Mh… I have to understand the trigger to my reaction… It might be a problem in the future…" he muttered to himself, before moving his ears: a whistling was coming out from the dim corridor. He moved from the wall, lowering his horn and spreading his wings in a menacing posture. From the darkness emerged the enormous silhouette of a black pegasus, whistling happily while walking and dragging along, by some barbed wire tangled to one of his hindlegs, the motionless body of an earth pony dressed in barbed whire, clearly dead, with his eyes bulging out and his mouth opened in a silent scream. Blaze noticed that even if the wire was tightly tangled to the pegasus's leg, the only blood was that of the earth pony. He opened his mouth, preparing to ask for identification, when he remembered where he had seen him.

"You killed my mother." He stated, calmly as usual. The pegasus stopped and blinked, as if he noticed only in that moment the alicorn.

"You mean the scientist bitch?" he asked, tapping his chin. "Oh yeah, yeah I remember you, you were there with that unicorn when I shot her dead. Good time, good time…"

Blaze's horn lit up, ready to engulf the pegasus in his flame. As soon as he lowered his horn, the pegasus was at his side, still smiling and looking at him with his scarlet eyes, and hit him in the jaw with his hoof.

Blaze had the impression that a hammer tied to a rocket hit him.

The alicorn flew for a few meters, before hitting the ground loudly, and laying there motionless. The pegasus grinned, before slamming his hoof into the door, smashing it.

"Hello everypony! sorry for the intrusion!" he bellowed, stepping into the infirmary. The room's occupants turned their eyes towards him, probably realizing the fact that the alicorn hadn't stopped him. The pegasus took another couple of steps, before stopping: Smooth Heart had raised her rifle and was currently aiming at the pegasus face.

At his sides, Moneybags and Cobalt Rain were ready to jump on him, as Midnight Shadow and McGash were aiming with Jinx's weapons at the immense target that was the pegasus.

"My my, it wasn't necessary to put together this kind of welcome, I'm just here to retrieve a couple of things." He stated, still smiling. The ponies and griffin didn't move, still glaring at the intruder. Even Nox and Twisted Soul were cautiously looking at him, while tending to Broken Jinx. Gizmo was currently holding back Silver Image, not without fatigue. The only one that wasn't paying any attention was Shimmering Star, sitting behind her bed and occupied in cutting her hindleg with the sharp edge of her bean can.

"Prisoner 19953Z, don't try to move." Stated coldly Smooth Heart, without moving her rifle. Cobalt Rain stomped on the ground, while staring at the enormous pegasus.

"He's the 'hunter of Fillydelphia', isn't he?" he asked to the mare, flapping his wings in anger. Moneybags and Gizmo's ears flapped, surprised, while on the pegasus' muzzle appeared a creepy smile.

"That's what he was called by the citizens, yeah." Confirmed the mare, licking her lips. "Plea Night, aka the Hunter of Fillydelphia, only prisoner of the sixth level of the prison. I really hoped you were dead." She stated coldly. "Ponies like you just deserved to be mauled by diamond dogs." Plea just smiled sweetly, seemingly unimpressed.

"Why? What did this one do?" asked McGash, without moving his eyes from the pegasus.

"He raped twenty-three little fillies, and killed seven of them, apart from killing two guards." Stated coldly Cobalt Rain, the rage well visible in his eyes. Gizmo nodded, while still holding back the mare.

"If I can say something in my defense, I never wanted for those seven little cuties to die. I always tried to be gentle, but those times the bleeding didn't stop… I also tried to call the hospital, you know?" stated calmly Plea Night, as if they were talking about the last Daring Do book. "They just didn't arrive in time for seven times. I never killed unless forced to. Like by those two guards."

"That doesn't excuse you in anyway!" growled Moneybags. "The mare is right, ponies like you just deserve to be mauled by dogs."

"That's funny, that was exactly what that nice Sulphuric Base said when she chose me as a test subject. She probably expected me to die, I assume. That's why they ordered my transfer to the sixth floor, instead that keeping me with the other prisoners." Said the pegasus, before beginning to walk towards the pile of videotapes he had noticed just in that moment.

"Don't take another step, or you'll end with a bullet in your brain." Stated the pegasus mare, making her rifle click in position. Plea chuckled.

"Come on miss, you should know that after that experiment, threatening me with a gun it's compleatly useless." He said, looking condescendingly at the mare, who didn't budge. "You don't even know what they did to me, do you?" he asked, sighing.

"I didn't need to."

"Just an obedient and incurious guard dog for the prison… they had picked wisely, choosing you." Snickered the pegasus, without stopping.

"The lady said stop!" roared Moneybags, jumping and aiming a flying at the pegasus' neck. The next thing that happened was Moneybags rolling on the floor, grasping his leg and howling in pain, as the pegasus continued to move calmly towards the tapes. Smooth Heart's eyes widened, before she fired her rifle. The bullet hit the pegasus' head, and bounced to the floor. The ponies' jaws hit the floor. Calmly, the pegasus rose a hoof over the tapes.

"Oh and also, if you would give me your magnetic card, it'll be appreciated, miss. As I said, I don't like to kill. Except for that researcher bitch. I enjoyed killing that slut."

"What did you say… about my mother…?"


	17. Things love to go south

The alicorn stumbled into the infirmary, glaring furiously at the pegasus. Plea just looked at him with moderate interest, while smashing the group of tapes with his hooves.

"You synthetic alicorns are tougher than I thought. I imagined that would have knocked you out for a couple of hours." He chuckled, before turning completely towards him, his wings spreading in a menacing manner. "Anyway, I was just saying that your creator was a little filthy slut, an-"

The pegasus was unable to finish the sentence, as the alicorn charged him, slamming the black stallion against the wall, Blaze's horn shimmering with magic. The black stallion didn't react, without giving any sign of pain from the hit.

"You are made pretty strong uh? Genes of earth pony, I assume. But let me show you how you are supposed to hurt somepony." Said Plea, before pushing abrupty the alicorn into the other wall, cracking it. Blaze gasped, as the pegasus raised his hoof, and tried to punched the alicorn's face, but he quickly dodged. The wall crumbled under the hit. The pegasus flapped his wings and pushed the alicorn into the next room, smashing another wall.

"Blaze!" shouted the pegasus mare, reloading her rifle and galloping towards the hole, where another sound of crumbling wall arrived.

"What the Hay is he!?" cried out Cobalt Rain, grabbing a blade and running behind the mare, followed by Silver Image.

"Bite me if I know." Growled Midnight Shadow, lowering his head, and preparing to charge behind the others, but he was stopped by a low growl under the room. Not a hound's growl. A lower, scarier structural growl.

"Isn't it lovely how things are going south so fast?" "asked Shimmer Star in a dreamy tone, poking her head out from behind her bed. There was another low rumble, before the ground began to tremble. The room trembled, as a series of cracks opened in the floor.

-oOo-

"Zira, what's happening?!" asked fearfully the unicorn, trying to stay on his hooves as the floor shook. The zebra tapped furiously on her keyboard, as a couple of monitors fell to the ground, crashing in a burst of sparks.

"Seems a common earthquake. A strong one." She muttered. The unicorn stumbled towards her, trying not to be hit by another falling monitor.

"Earthquake? Here?"

"Actually, this is a seismic zone, since we are so far away from the Equestrian lands, protected by the powers of the princesses. And we are also underground. Normally there is a magic-mechanical stabilization system to prevent damage, that's why you never noticed. But since we have shut off all the security sistems…"

"Well, turn them on! At least, the lab's ones!" ordered the unicorn, furiously. "Do you even need me to order that?" The zebra didn't answer, tapping on the console. The tremor immediately began to decrease. "Buck. I got scared for a moment." Grunted the unicorn, adjusting his top hat. "Try to reason with your head next time. Is there any damage in the labs?" he asked, glaring at the zebra, but she just shook her head.

"Nope. The third and fourth level of the prison are full of debris, half of the first level of the asylum is collapsed and the fifth level is unstable." She murmured. The unicorn tapped his chin, grumbling something. Then he turned towards the wall, looking at at his shadow.

"Find the mare and bring me the card. That's the important part, it's not necessary to kill her." he ordered, turning again towards the screen, as his shadow saluted and slid away. "We have no more time to play. If that comunication we intercepted is true, we don't have time to waste, waiting for the princesses to come here and destroy this place." He grumbled. "Zira, take the inmates and begin to prepare the corpses. I'll start to brew the poison."

-oOo-

"Is everypony ok…?" grunted Nox, crawling away from under a half smashed bed. Luckily, the floor hadn't shattered completely, so it had softened the fall. More or less.

"Bucking buck…. That hurt…" cried in response Gizmo Fidget's voice: the stallion was laying on the ground, evidently dragged out from the debris by McGash. The griffin was breathing heavily and his feathers were ruffled, but he didn't seem to be hurt in any way. On the contrary, Gizmo's left hindleg was twisted in an unnatural manner. Nox raised on his hooves, walking in a wobbly manner towards him, while looking around.

The unconcious body of Broken Jinx was still resting on his bed, even if the metal frame was a little deformed. A few feet away, Twisted Soul was sitting on the ground, a pained expression on his muzzle, as he held his hooves to his mouth.

"Yo freak, what's happened? I thought that the big scary alicorn ordered you to fix the guard." Said grinning Moneybags, walking towards the unicorn with a slight limp, while adjusting his blond mane. The unicorn glared at him, before opening his mouth and releasing on the ground a little stream of blood and saliva.

"A bit ma ongue. I hurt." He spat out, before closing again his mouth. The green earth pony grinned, before walking towards the other two unicorns sitting on the ground.

"How are you two doing?" he asked cautiously. After all, they were patients of the asylum. Midnight Shadow nodded, while bandaging a long cut on his neck, as Shimmering Star ignored the question, rolling on the dusty floor.

"Hey Moneybags, I need a hoof here." Called Nox. He was leaning over Gizmo, looking at the twisted leg of the red stallion. "It's dislocated. I could use your strength here." He muttered, putting his hooves on Gizmo's head.

"Can't you use your magic for that?"

"Somethimes, typical methods are more efficient." Stated the unicorn. "Now Gizmo, Moneybags will put your bone where it's supposed to be, nothing to worry about."

"Shouldn't he be sleeping for this?" asked bluntly the earth pony, grasping the leg in his hooves. Gizmo's face paled.

"Sleeping? Why? It's going to hurt? Oh Celestia it's already hurting a lot!" he cried in fear, just before McGash slammed an iron bar on his head.

"That's a fine replacement for some anesthetic." Grinned the green earth pony, as Gizmo's head fell back, unconcious.

"I supposed it was better if the medic could keep much of his magic he can." Stated the griffin, tossing away the bar.

"I'm on the same page, unfortunately…" agreed the unicorn. "And I have the impression I'll need to fix some other ponies, before tomorrow…"

-oOo-

"Whoa there!" cried Cobalt Rain, grasping Silver Image's forehooves, as her hindlegs wiggled in the enormous crack that had opened beneath her. "Lady, we have to stop running like idiots! Here everything is trembling!" cried out the pegasus, addressing the orange pegasus mare that was hurrying ahead of him.

"No! We have to get Blaze. At the moment, he's the most powerful help we have: I don't want to lose him!" shouted back the mare, while dodging a falling boulder. The pegasus grunted.

"Coby maybe it's better if we just follow her… she could get caught in some trouble, all by herself…" murmured Silver, while looking fearfully at the crack behind her. Cobalt nodded, and began to run again, the mare beside him.

A little further ahead, Smooth Heart was running, following the faint sounds that indicated the presence of the two fighting ponies.

"How much futher could have they gone?" she asked to herself, while stumbling a little on the metallic floor through the debris. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, releasing a shower of dirt and rock into the room the mare was crossing, shutting off a lot of emergency lights, leaving the passage even more dark then before. Suddenly, a clashing, metallic sound was heard by the mare, below in the next room. As she entered, she saw that the floor had collapsed, showing the room below.

The room below was evidently a boiler room. The boilers seemed to be off, as streams of water poured out from the smashed pipes and deformed tubes. Down below, she watched as Blaze hit the floor hard, a series of bruise visible over his body, as well as a purple eye and a broken lip. He raised again on his hooves, shrugging off the dirty water, facing Plea.

The pegasus was on the other side of the room, his wings still spread in a menacing way, while half of his face and the top of one wing was burning with flames, accompanied by the disgusting smell of burning plastic. The pegasus was still smiling mockingly, without giving any sign of pain or distress due to the flames devouring his fur.

"I must admit, you fake alicorns are pretty tough."

"That was my line." Said coldly the Blaze, aiming his horn and beginning to walk slowly through the room, eyeing the pegasus. Plea chuckled a little, while in the upper room, Cobalt Rain and Silver Image joined Smooth Heart near the enormous hole that was once the floor.

"Well, I guess I have to thank your dear mommy. You know, the creation of fake alicorns was the last project made for facing a war against the changelings. The first idea was the use of hydra's genes to increase a soldier's abilities, but that ended with the security staff fighting back a brood of lizard-like mutants."

"I remember that…" muttered Smooth Heart, while aiming her rifle.

"Then they thought about some sort of body armor, but it ended up being a failure. Then, they began the project 'S.w.a.g.'. don't ask me about the name." Continued the pegasus, his scarlet eyes still locked on the alicorn, who didn't move. "It was initially the idea of crafting a group of mechanical ponies, guided by a hive consciousness, as indestructible soldiers. Problem was that they weren't able to create an arthificial intelligence smart enough to guide a big group of machines. Even if the construction of the soldiers' bodies was perfect. Do you see where I'm going?" asked the pegasus. A piece of skin fell on the ground, revealing something shiny and metallic beneath it.

"Oh dear Celestia…" muttered Cobalt Rain, as other pieces of synthetic fur and skin fell, burning, into the water, revealing a metallic, tense body.

"They tried to create an even more sophisticated body, able to hold the mind of a true pony, and just used me as a guinea pig. But since the costs were too high, they dumped the project, slammed me into the sixth level of the prison, and began playing with genes." Growled the pegasus, as a chunk of burned fake cover fell down from his wings, revealing a metallic wing-bone with a series of thin plates replacing the feathers. The fake fur was still burning, but the creature didn't care. Remembering what had happened to him just awakened his rage. The metallic creature roared and abruptly charged the alicorn, slamming him against a boiler.

"Buck!" cursed Smooth Heart, dropping her riffle from the sudden action.

"You know what I regret though?" asked angrily the enormous pegasus, slamming the alicorn's head against the metallic surface. "I should have made that little earth pony slut suffer a little more for what she did to me! For science she said! For the faith of Equestria!" he roared, smashing his hoof against Blaze's flank and sending him against a wall. "I should have raped her! Cut her in half! Wet the ground with her blood!" He raised again his hoof, ready to slam it against the alicorn's horn, just to be hit on his head by Cobalt Rain. Blaze managed to kick with his hindlegs, pushing Plea back.

"Your action was unnecessary, sir." he stated calmly, looking up as Cobalt Rain landed on Plea's other side.

"Well, too bad that I don't want to see you beaten to death." Grunted the pegasus, flapping his wings angrily. Blaze raised an eyebrow, still with his neutral expression.

"There was no necessity. I have everything under control."

Plea's wings twitched, as the little plates moved into a much more dangerous-looking position.

"…Maybe I can use a little help…"

"Buck!" stated again the mare, loosing aim again, as the metallic pegasus charged the alicorn. "I can't have a clear shot."

"For what?" asked the other mare coldly, her tone lowered and cruel. Stained Reflex's voice. "You already see that your weapon is useless. As mch as you." She mocked, chuckling heavily, as below them there was an explosion of flames.

"Than what do you suggest?" hissed bitterly the pegasus mare, glaring at the other one. Stained Reflex looked around with her narrowed eyes, before returning to look again at the other mare.

"I need your weapon."

"Forget about it!" immediately answered the pegasus mare. "There is no way I'm giving my weapon to a prisoner!"

The mares glared at each other, before Stained simply smashed her hoof on Smooth's face, then grabbed the rifle with her hooves..

"Press him against the boilers!" she shouted. Immediately recognizing an order, Blaze pushed the metallic body against the boilers, emitting a low donging noise. Cobalt Rain tried to aid the alicorn, holding back one of the metallic wings. "Melt the metal!"

"Silly filly, you can't melt me! Of course my body is fireproof." Chuckled slightly the enormous pegasus, while slashing Blaze's flank with his free wing. Blaze lit his horn, as the metal of the boiler began to slowly melt, emitting fumes and nasty smells. The melted metal began to swallow on the metallic pony's body, with a series of gushing sounds. Cobalt Rain's widened his eyes, seeing what the mare's plan was. He left Plea's wing and began to splash water on the melted metal, sending up streams of steam as the metal solidified again, snaring the metallic body of the pegasus.

"Do you really think this will hold me?" asked Plea,smirking as Blaze and Cobalt Rain stepped back. Then the unconscious body of Smooth Heart hit the ground, thrown from the upper floor, followed by Twisted Reflex.

"Take her out." she stated, aiming the rifle at the ceiling.

"Oh, how cute. What do you want to do?" asked mockingly the metallic pony, grinning.

"Bury you alive." Stated coldly the mare, shooting at the upper room's ceiling. With a metallic sound, the few cables and metallic frames that were holding back a group of boulders and dirt broke.

-oOo-

"Well, buck."

"That's something I don't want to hear from you Zira. What's happened?"

"I lost contact with Plea."

"What? Is he dead?"

"Don't know. I don't have a pulse to check, you know?"

"…I got the poison on the fire. Keep up the work with the prisoners. I'll take care of this personally, and maybe take back Plea."


	18. Mind's secrets

"It's useless!" Cried out Twisted Soul, raising his horn again from the motionless body of Broken Jinx. "This illusion is crazy! It's not like anything I ever created before!" he groaned, sitting on the debris-covered ground. Nox sighed. It had been over an hour since Twisted had resumed trying to free the other unicorn from the illusion that was locking down his mind, to no avail.

"What do you mean? You were closed up here because you are an expert in this things, aren't you?" asked Nox, returning from tending to Blaze's cuts and bruises: he, Cobalt Rain, Silver Image and a fainted Smooth Heart had managed to rejoin the rest of the group. Nox have passed a good half an hour over all the wounds of the alicorn, even if he continuously stated that he was fine and in no pain.

"Of course I was! But this stuff…" grunted Twisted, massaging his horn. "This thing is complicated. I can't actually break it." He growled, slamming a hoof on the ground. On the other side of the room, Moneybags chuckled in a mocking way.

"Maybe you just need to rest…?" asked Nox, trying to keep Twisted in a good mood. While the unicorn had been passing his time working on Blaze's wounds, he had caught Twisted glaring towards the alicorn a couple of times.

"It's not that. It has to be broken from the inside!" cried out a frustrated Twisted Soul. "It's not common unicorn magic! It's something else. Not a real illusion in the real sense, it's like this guard has been closed up in his own mind, in an illusion he's creating himself. And I can't dig too deep while still holding onto reality. It's needed an intervention on the inside is necessary, to help Jinx to fight his own illusion."

"I'm sorry…. What?" asked Cobalt Rain, while Silver Image applied some cream on a scorch marck on his wing.

"It means I have to work inside his own illusion, and I can't do that with attention. Not alone. I could use the help of somepony eager to help Jinx. Putting his own sanity at steke, of course. Because things are never easy."

"Explain it."

"I'll have to connect the mind of somepony with Broken Jinx's, and they'll have to breake the illusion from the inside."

"Well, isn't that extremely easy? No fancy magic stuff then, just good ol' beatin's in an illusion!" grinned Moneybags, walking towards the unicorns. Twisted Soul grunted angrily.

"I need unicorns, if you are all so eager to lose more of us for the sake of this one." He said, pointing at the motionless body of the guard. "Unicors can be easily connected due to their own horn. It works as an antenna." He moved his eyes quickly over the unconscious body of Smooth Heart. "Since our… leader can't give orders, it's up to you decide."

"What if we don't use this method?" asked Cobalt Rain with a little concern, while worriedly eyeing the others. Twisted Soul just shrugged.

"Then he'll probably never wake up."

"I'll do it." Stated Nox, taking a couple of steps. "We can't lost anypony else at this point." Midnight Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"This is bet Nox. We can rescue him, or lose you too. With no offense, but you don't seem much of a… well, fast thinker." Murmured the big unicorn, sighing. "I'll go too."

"Hey, why can't we do something?!" growled Gizmo Fidget, scratching angrily the ground. Twisted sighed in annoyance, while the other two unicorns joined him.

"Told you already: unicorns are easiest to connect to another's mind with a brain link spell. If I do that on you or on a pegasus, or even griffin, it's most likely I'll turn your brain in a pile of mush."

"Well, good luck guys!" exclaimed the scarlet earth pony, waving his hoof.

"Well… ok… what do we have to do?" asked Nox, already starting to regret his decision.

"Find Jinx. He's deep in his mind and his illusion. Then… well, solve the illusion. Whatever it is." Stated grumpily Twisted Soul, before lighting his horn. Nox's eyes began to close, as a sudden sleep fell over him. He fell on the ground, along with Midnight Shadow, as a purple string of light began to glow, connecting the unicorns' horns.

"It's best for you if they all come back. I don't think Blaze and Smooth will be happy, if we lose all of them." Stated Moneybags, walking towards Twisted Soul. The unicorn said nothing, as another stream of magic left his horn.

-oOo-

When Nox opened his eyes again, the first thing he tought was that Twisted hadn't done anything: he was still in the metallic, dimly-lit room. Although, he was alone, except for the other green unicorn that was a few feet away, massaging his head.

"Is this some kind of stupid joke from that pony?" asked Midnight Shadow with some anger, as he looked around. "This is same place. He just. what, turned the others invisible?"

"There isn't any debris." Stated Nox, looking around. The other unicorn blinked, before noticing that in fact, the room was perfect. There were no traces of the earthquake, of the collapsed ceiling or the presence of any cracks in the walls.

"Stay close to me, doctor." Stated the green stallion a little nervously. Nox nodded, as he walked towards the metallic door. As soon the black unicorn touched it, the metallic surface slid open, revealing a sea of mist in front of them. Nox gulped, and took a step outside, followed by his companion.

"Well, this all except inviting…" he grumbled, while slowly walking forwards. "I assume we are already inside the illusion. We first need to find Jinx, and second, find a way out of this."" He stated, before his hoof encountered something: he lowered his gaze, and saw a big, black and contorted root. As he raised again his eyes, he noted a series of tall and slender trees emerging from the mist, their trunks raising towards the misty sky.

"Mh… a forest?"

"Seems a legit setting for an illusion." Noted Midnight Shadow, while looking around. "Is Creepy. Empty. Silent."

"You are helping in creeping me out." whispered Nox, while walking on. The forest was apparently empty, except for the trees. Luckily for them, a blurry light emerged from the mist above them, as the sun, hidden by the mist, tried to cast light over the area.

"Do you think we should call to him?" asked Midnight Shadow, nearly tripping on a hidden root.

"Normally I'd say yes. I don't know much about mental spells, therapeutic illusions and such, but I know that psychologists can interact with their patients in their illusion without entering in contact with the illusion's material, something like 'being visible only to the subject.' But Twisted said that this is no normal illusion. So, I'd advise not to alert any attention to us."

"Doctor, this is just fake, isn't it? It's just an illusion. Nothing can hurt us." Snickered Midnight Shadow, while looking around.

"Physically no, you are right, nothing can hurt us. But we are here mentally, with our consciousness. So, if something "hurts" or even "kills" us, we'll probably end like drooling idiots for the rest of our life. As far as I know, that was one of the most loved pasttimes of Twisted Soul, before he was locked away."

"That was nice of him." Grumbled the green unicorn, walking at Nox's side. "And yet he was just in the prison, while I was the one in the asylum…"

"Well… you can't really control your rage when woken up during daytime, evidently. The fact is that, from what Smooth Heart told me, the psychologist of the Canterlot's dungeons said that he was completely in possession of his mental capacity when he did what he did. Every time."

"That's not comforting at all." grunted Midnight Shadow, before stopping and placing a hoof on the other stallion's back. Nox stopped, and looked where Midnight Shadow was pointing: a tall, blurry figure was staggering through the mist, without making any sound. The two unicorns stayed motionless, as the image disappeared with a low, ticking sound.

"What was that?" asked the green unicorn, whispering, his eyes still locked in the mist. Nox gulped.

"I don't want to know…" murmured the medic, licking his dry lips. The forest was darkening slowly, as if the "sun" was disappearing behind the dense cover of mist. "Let's just move." He stated, beginning to walk again. As soon he took a couple of steps, there was a loud deep noise, all around them, as a series of metallic walls sprang out of the ground, surrounding them.

-oOo-

"How are they doing?" asked Cobalt Rain worriedly, while looking at the sleeping body of his black friend: a string of purple light was connecting his horn to Jinx's, as well as Midnight Shadow's. Twisted Soul open one eye, looking at the pegasus with an annoyed expression.

"As far as I can tell, they are still sane." He grumbled, before closing again his eyes. Cobalt opened his mouth, but said nothing when Silver Image gently pulled him back.

"Leave him alone." She said sweetly. "I know you don't like him, but well… he knows how to do his work, doesn't he?"

"We can't trust him!" the pegasus hissed, while glaring at the motionless unicorn.

"It's not in his interest do something funny." Murmured Gizmo, joining the couple. "I think we can trust him, for now. And in the end, I think he may want to try something aginst Smooth Heart…"

"You three idiots realize I can hear you, yes?" growled the unicorn, without opening his eyes. The three yelped and trotted away.

-oOo-

"We are back in the facility…?" muttered Nox, examining the metallic walls around him. Midnight grunted, sniffing the air.

"That doesn't make any sense." Muttered the green unicorn, while looking around.

"Please don't call her." muttered a low voice in the darkness. The couple of unicorns turned with yells towards the voice, both of them startled: a little black unicorn foal emerged from under a scrap of metal, waving his hooves. "Silence! Please, you are going to call her!" he whisperedm, scared. Nox closed his mouth, as well as Midnight, looking at the foal.

"Who are we going to call?" he asked gently, trying to regain his composure.

"Are you Jinx?" asked the green unicorn. The little foal nodded, while looking fearfully at a metallic door in the wall. "Sometimes the mind does some strange things, eh?" asked Midnight to no one in particular, as the little foal hid himslef again under a scrap of metal.

"What are you hiding from?" asked again Nox, trying to communicate with what he assumed to be Broken Jinx's mind in that moment.

"She." The little foal just answered, cowering in fear under the metal. "She hates me! And you should hide too."

"What are we going to do?" asked Nox, turning towards the other unicorn, who shrugged. Nox returned his eyes over the little trembling pony: he didn't have any idea of what to do, now he had found the guard's consciousness. Especially since he apparently hadn't even realized he was in an illusion.

"Something's coming." Muttered suddenly Midnight Shadow, crouching. With a loud boom, something slammed into the other side of the wall.

-oOo-

"What the…?" muttered Cobalt Rain as something hit the closed metallic door again. McGash and Gizmo stepped up beside him. Blaze raised on his hooves, lowering his horn.

"What else…?" muttered Smooth Hearth, while rubbing her head and grasping her rifle. Silver Image and Shimmering Star joined her, both of them with glass shards in their mouths.

With a screeching sound, the door tore open like it was a paper sheet, as an enormous pony's shadow projected itself against the wall, screeching.

"Oh bucking buck!" screamed Cobalt Rain, as Gizmo Fidget stared with terror at the black silhouette. The shadow pounced, as its legs wrapped around the ponies' shadow, blocking them. Smooth Heart screamed in pain as her body was squeezed by an invisible force, trying to free herself. Blaze lowered his horn without emitting any sound, as some sparks began to dance around it. The shadow emitted a hissing gulping sound, as a shadowy claw began to near the neck of Blaze's shadow.

"Acheni!" ordered a cold voice, as a crystal horned unicorn entered into the room, adjusting his top hat. "There is no need to kill them, right?" he asked with a sweet tone, walking inside the room.

"Well, we are screwed." Muttered McGash.


	19. Solving our shit

Crystal walked slowly through the dark corridorhumming a song calmly, as the rest of the ponies followed: they were half-tempted to attack him, half-scared of the invisible presence of the shadow behind them, as they carried the unconcious bodies of Midnight Shadow, Nox, Broken Jinx and Twisted Soul.

Cobalt Rain glared at the calm unicorn that was guiding them deep into the belly of the facility. What choice did they have? It was clear that the shadow would have slaughtered them happily if they tried anything. That has been made clear when Blaze tried to cast a spell against Crystal Horn.

Now the alicorn was limping, one of his wings torn a little, and a golden ring firmly locked around his horn, stopping any attempt to use magic.

"Why are you doing all of this, Crystal?" asked Smooth Heart suddenly. She was walking right behind the unicorn, glaring at the silver tail in front of her. "Just tell me. So I can die happy." Crystal Horn chuckled, while levitating Smooth's magnetic card in front of his muzzle.

"I don't know what you expect. For me to explain my evil plot to you?" snickered the unicorn, while forcing open an elevator's doors with a blast of purple magic. "Just calm yourselves. Since you have provided a bunch of useful data, I'll spare all of you. Isn't this nice?" he asked in a mocking tone, as the elevator began to descend into the darkness.

"Isn't sparing the lives of the enemies usually the way the bad guys get owned?" asked Shimmering Star, while slowly tipping her head against the wall of the elevator.

"You won't escape." Stated simply the unicorn, as the elevator screeched and stopped. The doors opened slowly, revealing a much brighter and intact corridor than the ones the ponies had seen on the upper floors.

"Kinda cozy here." Admitted Gizmo, looking around as they walked, their steps echoing slightly in the empty corridor.

"The raging prisoners and mad ponies didn't have any reason to reach the labs." Commented the unicorn. "So, there isn't too much damage. Except from the earthquakes."

"If you're not going to kill us, what are you going to do?" asked Cobalt Rain, moving his eyes around every corner, without trusting the unicorn's words, [and neither did] Moneybags or McGash. Silver Image was instead extremely quiet, probably chatting in her head with her sister.

"For now, you're all going to be locked in one of the experiment room. Just don't try any funny business. I'll be back to see what to do with you all.." stated calmly Crystal Horn.

-oOo-

"Shit!" growled Moneybags, trying to kick down the metallic-white door of the room, but he couldn't even scratch it. He dropped again on all fours, and glared at the door, as if it was the cause of all the bad in Equestria.

"Well… at least we are safe…" murmured Silver Image, while patting Cobalt's back. Moneybags grunted.

"Just because he said so. And after all of this, I don't trust him in the slightest." murmured Smooth Heart, looking attentively at the white walls that surrounded them. She began tapping the surface near the door with a hoof. "I think behind this panel there are the cables for the door. Gizmo, if that's the case, can you open it?" she asked, while beginning to tap a little harder on the wallwhere a tile started to come loose.

"Well yeah, I can try that." muttered the scarlet earth pony, while looking around. "But are you sure it's a good idea?"

"Do what the ma'am ordered." Blaze from where he was sitting, looking blankly at the floor. The pegasus mare moved her gaze to the alicorn and trotted over to him, leaving the tile. Gizmo and McGash looked at her for a couple of seconds, before going to work on the same spot.

"Hey Blaze, how're you doing, big guy?" Smooth Heart asked quietly, gently patting the alicorn's back.

"My physical condition is stable, ma'am, and those are minor scratches, they won't interfere with any action. My magic is sealed, though." answered the alicorn blankly, saluting with much less enthusiasm than usual. The mare looked at him, before sitting at his side without saying anything, patting a hoof on Blaze's back.

"I meant mentally. You seem a little bit off." She stated. The alicorn didn't answer, sighing. The mare just patted his back again, while moving her eyes through the room: the light was coming down from a couple of luminescent bars placed in the ceiling, without permitting any passage for electrical wires. But Cobalt Rain was flying near the ceiling, searching for a loose tile. On the ground, Moneybags was still trying to force the entrance door, helped now by Silver Image, both the earth ponies slamming their hooves against the metallic door, without result.

On the other hand, McGash and Gizmo had luck, and had managed to discover a group of electrical conduits. The red stallion was examining them, using the griffin's claws as instruments.

"I hope that those unicorns will wake up soon. A unicorn's help could be useful now." muttered the engineer, as an electric spark darted out and hit the griffin, ruffling his feathers.

"Yeah, how are they?" asked Smooth, moving her gaze towards Twisted Soul and waiting for an answer. The unicorn rose his head from the ground and glared at the mare.

"I lost them… they are deep in the illusion. Now it's up to them." He muttered, raising a little his horn, still connected to the others by magic. "I just hope they move quickly. I'm losing my energy here."

-oOo-

Nox's mouth hung agape as the metallic door was pushed open, and an enormous creature stormed into the little room, galloping with a roar at the little foal, who began to scream in panic: the enormous body of a mare had entered the room, the yellow fur dirty and stained with blood and the green mane stuck to her neck by dried blood and brain fluids. The eyes were absent, and only shining green flames were present in the eye sockets.

Nox darted towards the little colt, grabbing him from his mane and tossing him onto his back, before dodging around the enormous mare's legs and running outside. Midnight Shadow charged one of the legs of the creature, knocking her off-balance, before following the other unicorn.

"Doctor, do we have a plan?" he shouted, as from behind him echoed a loud scream that no pony could have ever made. From the mist in front of them, a tropical forest sprung out, forcing them to slow down.

"I don't know! I don't even know what that thing is supposed to be! I know that common offensive illusion spells are based on the mental weakness of the subjects." Screamed back Nox, while almost tripping over a root. "But I don't even know what that thing is supposed to be!"

"She hates me!" screamed the little Broken Jinx, clutching at the medic's neck.

"That does not help." Grumbled Midnight Shadow. The creature behind them bellowed, walking over a tree, and smashing it apart.

"She hates me because I couldn't help her! I should have protected her!" cried out the little foal, pressing his muzzle into the medic's mane.

"Well, this helps a little more, I think." Screamed Nox. Around them, the trees began to darken, their wood slowly becoming lower and lower shades of blacks, as a series of green, carved marks and ornaments began to appear over their surfaces.

"What are those things?" asked the green unicorn, looking hurriedly at the carved symbols on the trees. Behind them, the creature smashed another tree. Nox gasped without answering. He was too focused over running away from the nightmareish undead creature behind them. He was in fact so focused that he didn't notice the little shadows dripping out from the signs. "Doctor, we can't run forever. We're here to help Jinx, not run around in his mind!" cried out Midnight Shadow, trying to get the other unicorn's attention.

"Untill we can figure out a plan, this is the best thing to do, am I wrong?" shouted back Nox, dodging a low branch. "Do you have any ideas?" he asked, turning; but Midnight Shadow wasn't behind him. Or rather, he was far behind him, dragging himself over the ground, as if something was holding onto his hindlegs.

"Oh for the love of Celestia!" screamed Nox, turning and running towards the other unicorn and grabbing his hooves, trying to drag him away. The shadows that were holding down Midnight hissed and moved around them, pinning Nox too, immobilizing the unicorn's legs by his own shadow, while with a roar, the staggering body of the mare stepped closer, smashing another tree.

"Chop its head off! Chop its head off!" screamed Nox, panicking, as he wiggled his legs and tried to run away. The shadows screeched, pushing him to the ground. Jinx tried to jump off and run away, but another shadow grabbed his tail's shadow, stopping him and raising him into the air.

"Magic does not work here. We are just in a representation of his mind!" cried back Midnight Shadow, as the immense mare slowed and began to walk slowly towards them, as the trees thickened, becoming a tall, black and circular wall, covered in flaming green signs and inscriptions all along their length.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry I couldn't save you Sulphuric!" screamed the little foal, covering his eyes in fear. The gigantic mare roared, a stream of flames darting out of her empty eyes.

"Wait wait wait! That's the Sulphuric base who developed the alicorn?" asked the green unicorn fearfully, as he tried to drag himself free again. The mare roared again, as the rotten skin began to shine with green symbols.

"Wait, I got it!" shouted back Nox, turning his head a little. "It's obvious, the illusion is based on the most recent trauma: the death of the one he was supposed to protect. The illusion is using the sense of guilt as a weapon." Shouted triumphantly the black unicorn. The mare bellowed, nearing.

"That's fantastic doctor. Now, how that will help our asses?" asked the green unicorn in a growl, as one of the mare's hoof stomped a few steps away from him. The shadows chuckled, swirling around theirs.

"I'm sorry!" cried out the little foal, as the shadow that was holding him began to drag him closer to the mare.

"No! Buck!"

"Ok ok, let me think…" said Nox in a rush, trying to concentrate over the screams of the colt and the loud roar of the mare. "Jinx" he cried out finally. "Listen, it's not your fault that she's dead!"

"Of course it's my fault: I had to protect her!" cried the little colt. The enormous creature took another step.

"You couldn't imagine that the Crystal Horn guy could have planned all of this. There was nothing you could have done!" said the black unicorn desperately. Jinx sniffed, while crying. The enormous mare stopped, as if she was listening to Nox's words. The shadows hissed. "It was a weapon that killed her, am I right? You are trained to stop a unicorn's magic, not a weapon's bullet." Said Nox again, licking his dry lips. "I understand you are feeling guilty, but there was nothing you could have done, with your knowledge of the situation, at the time."

"That's right tovarish, you can't blame yourself." Added Midnight Shadow, trying to get up. "And that's not the image you want to have in your mind of her, right?"

The foal stop crying, sniffing again before wiggling and freeing himself from the shadow's grasp, falling to the ground. He rose up with a determined expression on his muzzle, taking a couple of little steps toward the gigantic mare. The shadows were swirling slowly around them, hissing faintly. The foal looked at the mare, before standing at attention and saluting.

"I'm sorry ma'am to have not been able to help you." He stated, as his body began to grow. "But I can't run away from you anymore. So, either you let me and my friends get out of this place, or I'll be obligated to beat you!" he exclaimed, as he reassumed his adult aspect. The mare tilted her head, before smiling. The green flames in her eye- sockets disappeared, as a couple of eyes appeared. The blood, scratches and bruises disappeared. The shadows sreeched and began to flee, as the mare's body began to shine , making the dark barrier around them disappear, the green carving vanishing in the air.

"That's cool, I guess."

-oOo-

The tree unicorns woke up at the same time, gasping. Twisted Soul jumped slightly, as the magic stream that was connecting their horns disappeared.

"Jinx! You are back, thank Celestia!" cried out Smooth Heart, jumping on her hooves and trotting over to the guard. Broken Jinx tapped a hoof against the burnt part of his face, flinching a little in pain, before saluting.

"Yes ma'am. All thanks to those who helped me see reason. If we get out of here alive, I have to offer them a dinner." Stated the stallion, smirking. "Now, where are we?" he asked, looking around, while Midnight was asking the same thing to a bored Shimmering Star.

"We are stuck because this Celestia forsaken door does not work!" cried out Gizmo in frustration, punching the cables where he was working. With a faint buzz, the door opened. Gizmo blinked. "I'm a motherbucking hacker!"

-oOo-

Zira looked through the hidden camera placed in the prisoners room, watching as the confused group of ponies and griffin rushed out of the area. She wasn't sure that opening the door for them was a good idea, but permitting Crystal to continued with his plan was even worse. All of that had gotten extremely out of hoof. She rapidly closed the prisoners' camera as soon she heard the light steps of the unicorn trotting over to her, humming something.

"How is it going?" asked Crystal Horn, looking at the screens. The zebra huffed, regaining her impassible behaviour.

"Fine. The ingredients are all gathered. There were some problems with all the poison jokes, but nothing serious." She stated calmly. The unicorn nodded, still looking at the screens.

"What about our little prisoners?"

"They found the hidden camera and broke it. No image for a couple of minutes now. They are still there though." Said the zebra, without moving her eyes from the screens. "How is it Plea doing?"

"Pissed. I hope he calms down." stated simply the unicorn, turning away. "I'm going to test the poison then. The last test. And if everything is fine, I'll move on the final part of the plan. Since I have all the cards, it won't be a problem."

Oo-oO

Not so happy about this cap but meh, it was necessary. Back to action in the next chapters.


	20. Beginning of the chaos

"Look at this!" grunted a brown pegasus stallion, waving his bug-like wings. "Why in the blue hay did we have to drag around all of that bucking poison joke?!" he whyned, looking at his companion, a bulky zebra in a prisoner's suit.

"At least we didn't have to drag all the corpses out of that room." Commented the zebra, shrugging. "I don't even want to know what that unicorn is going to do with them."

"Maybe they are a gift for the necrophiliac prisoners." Snickered the pegasus, flapping his wings. The zebra glared at him.

"Dude, that was uncalled for." Ge grunted, turning around a corner.

"Yeah, the zebra's right. That was uncalled for." Commented Moneybags, glaring at them. The pegasus opened his mouth, and received an uppercut to his muzzle, that sent him to the ground, unconscious. The zebra reacted quicker, jumping back and preparing a charge. Too bad for him that Cobalt Rain jumped out from behind Moneybags and pinned the zebra to the ground.

"The hay are you doing?!" growled the zebra, trying to free himself. Then his eyes went wide when he recognized the two. "Wait a minute, you are that group of ponies that were continuing to-" Silver Image walked out from behind a corner and smashed her hoof against the zebra's head. The zebra whimpered, before fainting.

"Well, fantastic. Now, what are we going to do with them?" hissed angrily Twisted Soul, followed by the rest of the group, exiting from their hiding place.

"I'll tell you what we're we going to do: we are going to hide them in that room." Ordered Broken Jinx, pointing to a dark laboratory room on the other side of the corridor. "Moneybags, Cobalt Rain, do that." he ordered, while studying their surroundings.

"We need some weapons, first thing first. Silver Image, Gizmo Fidget, McGash and Midnight: you four go searching for weapons. Even pipes could be good, at this point." Ordered the unicorn, looking at them. They nodded, and trotted away, even if McGash was grumbling something about having a unicorn giving orders around.

"Smooth Heart, you and Blaze will go to the infirmary on this level and manage to get that ring off of Blaze's horn. With him, our offensive ability will greatly increase."

"Sir, I'm glad you are back." Stated the alicorn, smirking and saluting.

-oOo-

"Now… how can you say that the room behind that door is a place of interest?" hissed the griffin, while peeking his head around the corner, looking at a normal white door, wich was guarded by three earth ponies, a griffin, and a unicorn, all of them in prisoner's suits.

"Because it's guarded. So, as a consequence, it's a place of interest." hissed back Stained Reflex throught Silver Image's mouth. "Same brain as a chicken, I see." She added, with a cruel grin on her face.

"Stop that, both of you. Let's just think about how to take care of them. I mean, they got weapons." Whispered Gizmo from below them, his head poking out from the corner as well as the other two.

"If I still had my crossbow I could have hid in the vent system and sniped them." Grunted the griffin, snarling. Midnight Shadow tapped his chin, examining the ventilation ducts above their heads.

"You say that those things could sustain your weight?" muttered the unicorn, receiving only an angry grumble in response. "Then listen to me: I'll hide there and execute a couple of them. When they start panicking or running, you stop them, as I finish the job." He stated, while beginning to open the duct with his hoof.

"Stop them? How?! We are weaponless." Whispered worriedly the scarlet earth pony. The griffin raised his claws, wiggling them in front of Gizmo's face.

"These are not only for show, you know? They cut flesh as well as a burning knife in butter." He whispered, as Stained Reflex snickered, murmuring a 'pussy' towards the earth pony.

"Just do not get yourselves discovered until that moment." Ordered Midnight, before disappearing into the duct.

"Who the hell does he think he is?" growled the griffin, while the unicorn in front of the door fell on the ground, dead from a heart attack. The other ponies immediately began to shout, trying to understand what was going on. When one of the earth ponies fell on the ground, his head well separated from the rest of his body, the others began to scatter, evidently thinking of running away. The griffin ran directly towards the corner where the three were hiding. Stained Reflex jumped out screaming, grabbing the griffin's head and slamming it into the ground, beginning to smash her hooves on the griffin's face. McGash roared and darted out, jumping over one of the two earth ponies and and clawing his neck. Gizmo gulped, and finally charged the last one, slamming his head against the clean floor, staining the white tiles with a stream of blood.

"Well dome… let's just see what we can get here." commented Midnight, crawling out from the vent and opening the door with a movevent of his horn.

The room was a vast storage area, filled with building materials and such. Midnight stepped inside, slightly disappointed at the lack of weapons.

"Ok, nothing here. Let's just grab what these guys had, and return to the others." Ordered the unciorn. Gizmo peeked over the other stallion's head, examining the room.

"I still have some duct tape. Maybe I can do something with this stuff." He commented, tapping his chin. The unicorn sighed,while the griffin and the earth pony mare joined them, now holding the four weapons of the unlucky guards.

"Yeah. Sure. Listen Gizmo, we can't lose any more time with your crazy ideas! How in Equestria will a little bit of duct tape assemble all this stuff into some weaponry?" asked the unicorn, angrily.

After three or four minutes, the four left the room, loaded up with a bunch of cruedly crafted weapons.

"That's not possible." Murmured Midnight, while galloping towards the rest of the group. Gizmo chuckled, as he followed him.

"And you haven't seen what can I do with a pair of clippers."

-oOo-

"Ok, wait here Blaze." Stated the mare, leaving the alicorn sitting over a medical bed, before running over to the little storage of the infirmary and beginning to search around, scrabbling trought a series of boxes. The alicorn looked around, curious.

"What's the plan ma'am?" he asked, while looking around. The cabinets of the infirmary were all filled with medicine and clean bandages, things that the alicorn honestly wouldn't have expected to still be in their places.

"The ring is sealed with a nine digit code, just to restrain the most dangerous unicorns. But there is an instrument to remove them, in case of medical necessity." Commented the mare, swirling her tail as she searched inside another box. "We need to use one of those things... searching for the password would be a much bigger loss of time."

"Well, I suggest you be quick. There are hoofsteps outside, rapidly nearing, in our current state, we are powerless, weaponless and vulnerable." commented the alicorn. Smooth Heart raised ears, indeed able to hear the far sound of hooves on the metallic floor, quickly getting closer. She gulped and continued to search around. "I suggest we find a hideout. In our current state, weaponless and in my case, also powerless, we are easy prey."

"You don't say." Growled the mare, looking around, searching for a place to hide. Her body stiffened when the sound of hooves stopped right outside the door. The mare crouched, ready to jump over whoever was about to enter. Blaze crouched as well, his muscles tensed under the candid fur. Then suddenly, a cracking sound was heard, followed by a fizzle. Smooth Heart gasped, and jumped over to the door, trying to open it.

"Buck you, buck you, BUCK YOU!" she screamed, trying to force the metallic door open, without success.

"Wow, there was really somepony inside there!" exclaimed a raspy voice on the other side. "How did you know that?"

"Do you really think I have normal eyes? You must be new here." Commented a cold, metallic voice, that emitted a distorted sound at every vocalization. The alicorn's eyes widened, as he jumped over to the door and joined the mare in trying to force it open. "Stop wasting your time, it's a triple-plated titanium door, it's impossible to force it open." Commented again the voice. "Just be a little patient. We're going to deal with your friends, and then I can kill you, experiment." Stated the cold voice of Plea from the other side of the door.

"I killed you!" screamed the alicorn, hitting and denting the door.

"You are stupid if you think you can kill someone like me." Commented the cold voice. "Alert Crystal, tell him that the guys he spared are now free. You, you and you, with me. We have hunting to do."

"But… I think that the unicorn is working on his project or something like that… he told us to go away…" commented the raspy voice, sounding slightly scared.

"Well then, alert all the other jerks like all of you, and move your asses. Just let's find them and kill them before they can become a real problem." Screamed the cyborg's voice, his pitch rising high, probably due to some interior damage during the fight with Blaze. "Just wait here you two. I'll end you as soon as possible."

-oOo-

"This wasn't such a great idea." commented Shimmering Star, while pushing her hooves against the walls of the ventilation ducts where the little group had jumped as soon they heard steps in the corridor. Steps that weren't from either the couple gone to the infirmary, or the group that had gone in search for weapons.

And now, they were stuck in the metallic duct, unable to climb up.

"What are you, afraid to beat some damned prisoners?" grunted Moneybags, trying to not fall down the duct, as Cobalt Rain sneezed from below him, as his nose was tikled by the earth pony's tail.

"Fighting a group of numerous armed ponies is not a course of action we can afford to take, at this point." Commented Broken Jinx, looking down at the others: Moneybags, Twisted Soul, Cobalt Rain, Shimmering Star and Nox were all holding themselves against the metallic surfaces, trying not to fall down. "Since we can't climb up, let's just head down. With a bit of luck, we can find an exit around the second level, without having to pass through any functioning fans."

"Yay, climbing down into darkness, risking being chopped into pieces by swirling metallic blades! That was my only purpose in existence!" commented sarcastically Cobalt Rain. Twisted Soul emitted a groan, and began slide down slowly, imitated by the others.

"What about the others?" asked suddenly Cobalt Rain. "I'll feel bad if something happens to them while searching for us." He commented, trying to hide his concern for Silver Image.

"Midnight Shadow is a good leader, he can lead the others. Also, they'll probably be armed, so the dangers for them are not as high. And I think you have already understood that Smooth Heart and Blaze are perfectly capable of defending themselves."

"She got her legs and wing broken the same day we arrived here." Commented Nox, causing a fit of hysterical giggles from Twisted Soul.

"It should have been a day off for her." cut off Jinx. They continued to descend for a couple of minutes, before an awful stench wafted up from below them, stunning them and also making them lose their grip.

"Oh Celestia! I think something's rotten here.!" grunted Nox, still sliding down. Indeed, the stench was similar to rotten flesh left to the merciless fury of decomposition. As soon as the duct regained a horizontal structure, they all crouched and began to walk along the little passage, searching for a grate, while trying to breathe as little as possible.

"They were experimenting on some plants? Or some bacteria?" asked Nox, while fighting a strong urge to gag due to the stench. Broken Jinx shrugged, while leading the rest of the group.

"That's not our concern right now." he whispered, raising his ears as the sound of voices came through a gate a little ahead of their position. The unicorn crawled towards it, and looked through the bars, examining where they had ended up. "Oh dear Celestia…" he whispered, as his eyes widened in fear and disgust. Nox crawled up beside him and gave a quick glance outside, before turning his head and pressing his hooves on his own mouth: the duct system was attached to the ceiling of an enormous room, with a footwalk at a certain height. And all the floor, through the entire length, was covered in corpses.

"I think I'm gonna puke." muttered Moneybags, as Twisted Soul turned his head, disgusted. Shimmering Star just gave a quick glance, before losing interest in the scene and beginning to twirl a hoof in her mane. Cobalt crawled alongside Broken Jinx, who was still examining the room: the corpses, wich were constantly catching his eyes were of all races, and he could swear he saw at least a couple of dragons in the mess. Some of them were naked, other had guard suit, others remains of lab coats, and a bunch of them were in the orange, numbered suits of the prison.

"No bodies around… they all ended up here?" murmured Cobalt Rain, looking around. "I noticed that. You are telling me that they brought all the dead bodies here?" he whispered, looking as a bunch of ponies, zebras and griffins in prisoner's suits ran around, adding or moving some corpses.

"They are not all the ponies of the facility. But quite a good number. I'm sure the hounds got a lot of them, and others are lost somewhere. But still, there must be at least three or four thousand bodies down there." Muttered Broken Jinx, moving his eyes over a group of ponies dragging along a series of enormous cauldrons, full of bubbling purple liquid.

"That's a fancy bunch of nice information, thanks pal, just what we needed to set our stomachs at ease." Commented Moneybags, gagging. Behind him, Nox turned and emptied hsi stomach. The unicorn rolled his eyes, and returned to look outside the grate. He tensed when he saw Crystal Horn walking on the footbridge, examining the pile of corpses without any emotion in his eyes.

"Pour the poison all over the bodies. Don't be afraid to touch it, the important thing for you is to not swallow even a drop." He ordered, as the prisoners grunted and walked below, beginning to pour the liquid all over the corpses.

"Here's your vial, sir." commented a unicorn mare in a prisoner's suit, giving to Crystal a little vial, filled with violet liquid. The stallion grasped it with his magic, placing it under his hat.

"We still have to see if it works." He commented. "I never tried this recipe before."

"I just don't get why we are testing a poison over dead bodies." Commented the mare. Crystal chuckled, before answering.

"This poison is… peculiar. It has the same effect on dead bodies. The only difference is that I have to use a little bit of magic to activate its effect on corpses." He said, before gesturing to the other ponies to return on the footsteps. Then he walked towards the metallic stairs.

"I still don't get it… is this some sort of zebra's mumbo jumbo?" asked the mare, looking at the unicorn, receiving a nod in response. "Oh… and what kind of poison will need all of that poison joke?"

"The kind of poison needed to pull the biggest joke ever: to trick Death." Answered calmly Crystal Horn, placing himself in the center of the room, apparently unaware of the stench of the corpses. Broken Jinx glared down at him. It could be extremely easy. He could just break the grate and drop down on Crystal's head. He was tempted for a second, but then he rejected the idea. He could fail miserably with his aim, and just splatter on the ground.

"What is he doing?" asked Cobalt, raising an eyebrow: Crystal's horn was lighting up, but instead of his normal purple glow, a sick green light surrounded it. Slowly, Crystal rose on his hindlegs, as the light of his horn continued to raise. He calmly raised his forelegs in the air, as some green sparks began to dance around him, a couple of them sizzling over his face, painting it with strange tribal marks. "Zebra stuff." Was Broken Jinx's first thought.

"Kusimama, my friends!" He suddenly shouted, as the grim, green light continued to shimmer, and a faint sound of drums came out from nowhere. "Your bwana orders it! Walk again on the earth that you once despised. Raise, matumwa, and serve me as you deserve!" he shouted, as the light around his horn exploded, releasing a showers of sparks that fell on the violet liquid over the bodies. Crystal fell on his fours, as the light went out.

"What the hay was he trying to do?" grunted one of the ponies in an orange suit. Then he screamed like a little filly, as one of the dead bodies spasmed. One of the bodies, a pegasus in a guard's suit, with a wing torn off and a series of gashes on his neck rolled over a pile of other bodies, before raising wobbily on his hooves and standing up, his dead and epty eyes locking on Crystal Horn, who chuckled.

"Oh dear Celestia…" whispered broken Jinx, as Cobalt Rain's mouth hung agape.

"It works! It really works!" Crystal Horn screamed, raising his hooves in the air, as slowly, all the bodies rolled over and stood up, all of them looking at the unicorn, waiting orders from their new master.

Oo-oO

I read that in some thropical ilands, voodoo witchdoctor could brew a poison, using venom from a certain fish, to let people fall in a state of fake dead. Everyone thought that those people were dead and buried them. Later, the witchdoctor would have recuperated the body, and waited for him to wake up, convincing him that he had brought him back from the real of death as his personal zombie minion. And thsi people just served him, actually beliving him, without reacting since they were afraid to return in the realm of the dead if they tried to rebell. I liked the idea.


	21. Towards the end

"Buck!" screamed Smooth Heart, slamming her hooves again against the metallic door. Which, of course, didn't budge.

"It's useless ma'am. We are trapped, until somepony arrives and deal with this, In one way or another. Or until we are able to remove the ring from my horn. In that case, I could free us." Stated the alicorn calmly. Smooth was already opening her mouth to give a venomous answer, but closed it when she realized that Blaze was right.

She let herself fall against the wall, and sighed loudly. They were trapped. And they couldn't get out, since there was no trace of the object they were looking for.

"You know… I'm starting to think we are going to die, in here." She quietly murmured. Blaze turned towards her, his eyes open in a surprised frown.

"Last time we talked about this, you seemed to be more optimistic."

"I was." Grunted the mare, passing a hoof over her eyes. "But then, shit happened. I actually realized that Crystal had the hoof on us from the beginning. He talked about data: is this some sort of test for him?" she asked loudly. The alicorn sat silently, a frown on his face when he heard the unicorn's name. The mare sighed again, while sliding to the ground and sitting there, her head softly thumping against the door.

"I don't know what's going to happen Blaze." She murmured, her voice slightly cracked. "I just thought we would have to beat the prisoners back into place. I knew that much. But I didn't know a lot more things." She gulped, then spoke again, her voice cracking even more. "I lost two ponies. I lost two ponies here Blaze. I never lost a pony, not even when I was in the royal guard, or here during some small riot. And now, I lost two ponies." Blaze's ears twitched at the sound of her voice.

"One was slaughtered by that… thing that Crystal calls a shadow, and the second one… Masud… he was…" began the mare, before finally giving up and starting to cry. Blaze studied the mare for a couple of seconds. He knew what she was passing through. He passed through that as well, even if on a far smaller scale. That had been unexpected, but even more unexpected was that he was feeling… weird, because the mare herself was sad.

When his mother had been in charge of teaching him the basics of… well, everything, she said a word. Empathy. She said that he wasn't supposed to feel it, since he didn't have to feel anything for his enemies. But she also said that that was a shame. But from what he understood, it was quite similar to what he was feeling now. He suddenly felt the urge to comfort the crying mare. He stood up from the medical bed and walked to Smooth's side.

"Mother told me about Masud. He was a good zebra and an excellent guard." He said, while sitting at the mare's side. Smooth Heart sniffed and nodded, leaning against the alicorn. Blaze moved his hooves slightly, uncomfortable, as his wings unfurled again with a soft 'pomf'. "What's wrong with me?" he thought to himself.

Smooth Heart gave a quick glance to the unfurled, candid wings and smiled slightly, before softly nuzzling the alicorn's side. Blzer rocked slightly, uncomfortable. He was receiving too much information from his senses that he didn't have any idea of how to understand. Then suddenly, the mare jumped at him, pushing him to the ground. It was mostly surprise that stopped him from reacting. He looked with confusion at the mare that was above him, her eyes now clean of tears. He noticed that her wings were completely opened.

"Have you ever danced, Blaze?" she asked in a calm tone, her eyes sparkling.

"I can't say I have, ma'am…" murmured the stallion, gulping. He would have really preferred to be fighting Plea without his magic and three legs tied, instead of being in that unexpected situation.

"This is fine. Then, I'll lead." Whispered the mare, before pressing her muzzle against Blaze's.

-oOo-

"Ok, something is gone wrong." Commented Midnight Shadow, while looking around in the corridor. "Why is there only us?"

"Maybe the others got captured?" proposed McGash, while studying the home-made automatic crossbow that Gizmo Fidget had made for him.

"I doubt it. There would probably be a corpse from the aggressors, if that was the case, and some sign of blood. No, they probably hid themselves." Commented Stained Reflex, twiching her ears. "What are we going to do now?" she then asked the unicorn who was looking worriedly around. Midnight was silent for a couple of seconds, scratching his neck.

"We search for the stairs. we are out of options anyway."

"We could quickly check fast the hospital bay, and see if maybe Smooth Heart and Blaze are still there." Commented Gizmo, trying to sound calm. "At least, if they are still there we can count on their help. It couldn't hurt to check." The unicorn nodded, before gesturing to the others to follow him down the clean and silent corridor.

-oOo-

"Wow. I have to admit, this is quite impressive." Commented Plea, walking slowly along the footwalk, his metallic hooves clanking against the metallic surface, as he looked curiously at the sea of undead creatures standing motionless below him. On the other hoof, all the prisoners that were there were backing away in fear.

"Thanks Plea." Said calmly Crystal, walking up the metal stairs. "Now, I can proceed with the final part." He commented, looking down. "By the way, why are you here? I thought you were going to replace your fur."

"The ponies you kindly spared have broken out." replied the metallic pegasus with his dissonant voice. Crystal's head shot up, as an angry frown formed on his muzzle.

"Well then, that's what somepony gets for being a little gentle." He growled. Then he leaned over the edge of the footwalk, his horn lighting up and the images of Smooth Heart and the others appearing, shimmering above the group of undead ponies.

Broken Jinx shivered.

"Watumwa, those are your first enemies! Crawl around, search them out, find them and kill them!" He ordered. Then he turned towards Plea. "Find them and slaughter them."

"No problem. I have already located Smooth Heart and the alicorn." commented the mechanical pegasus, flapping his wings. "I'm going to get them." The unicorn nodded, then pointed at the group of zombies walking up the stairs.

"You, you and you, come here." ordered Crystal. Three ponies parted from the rest of the group and crawled towards him and Plea, while the prisoners whimpered and fell back, cowering behind the unicorn. Plea didn't visibly react, even if his metallic feathers spasmed.

The three ponies were bigger than the other corpses, their white fur slightly stained with blood, their wings dangling at their sides, their horns sparkling faintly.

"Alicorn?" asked Plea, raising an eyebrow. They were indeed a tall alicorn mare and a couple of stallions, a bulky one and a skinny one.

"Alicorn? Wasn't Blaze the only one?" asked Cobalt Rain in a hushed voice, looking with fear below them. Broken Jinx nodded, his eyes still locked on Crystal Horn.

"Blaze is the oldest and finished. But a great number of them were in development. Those three were the most complete ones, almost as old as Blaze. In all likelihood the other…samples… were useless as test subjects for his poison." He finally managed to say.

"Other samples?" asked Moneybags, joining the other two in front of the grate.

"Foals."

"Oh."

"Take them with you." Said Crystal. "They'll obey you. Find the fugitives and kill them." Plea nodded and walked away, followed by the alicorns' bodies. "Instead, you bunch of cowards…" began the unicorn, turning towards the prisoners. "Find Zira and kill her."

"Uh? Why sir…?" managed to ask the mare that had brought him the vial full of poison.

"They weren't able to escape on their own. There were no possible escapes from that room. The door was the only possibe exit. And it only could have been opened from outside or from the control point. Find that zebra and kill her."

"Yes sir! and you?" asked again the mare, straightening a little and saluting. The unicorn looked at her for a couple of seconds, then started to walk away, while answering.

"I'll take the speed transport under this floor towards the sixth level. And finish what I have started." He grunted, before disappearing from sight.

"Well, that's great. Now what?" managed to sask Twisted Soul. Broken Jinx bit his lip. There was a large group of undead ponies, that he had been sure existed only in legends and movies, but were now searching for the rest of them. They could return to the first level, but they would lose Crystal…

"We'll follow Crystal Horn." He ordered. "I don't know what he's going to do in the last level of the storage area. I don't even know what there is there. But we have to stop him, since I highly doubt he's going to do anything good."

"You're the boss." Commented Moneybags, rolling over and crawling down the vent system.

"When we'll get our hooves on him, we'll force him to end that…spell, on the bodies." Added Cobalt Rain, crawling behind the earth pony.

"Whatever you want. Then, I'll beat him up. The most violent possible way."

-oOo-

"Why is this thing not dying?!" cried out McGash, shooting crazily at the earth pony in the prisoner's suit that was stumbling towards them. He had come around a corner, and was now walking towards them without a word, ignoring the bullets that had penetrated in his neck, chest, and had took away half of his head.

On the other side of the corridor, Stained Reflex was shooting against a pegasus mare in a lab suit. She cursed and reloaded the hoof-made rifle, while the pegasus mare just continued to walk towards her, half of her skull gone, revealing her brain.

"I don't know and quite frankly, I don't care!" shouted back Midnight Shadow, his horn blazing as he beheaded a unicorn. The head of the pony fell on the ground, and a thick, green smoke flew away from the severed neck. The body trembled and fell to the ground as well. "We have to move towards the infirmary! Just hold them back." he ordered, beginning to run, immediately followed by Gizmo. The mare and the griffin shot another couple of times, before galloping away.

"They seem to be something like zombies!" cried out Gizmo Fidget, while almost tripping on his hooves.

"Those creatures are good only for scaring pups!" growled back McGash.

"Then what are they?!" snarled Stained Reflex, glaring at the griffin.

"I… don't have any idea…"

"We are here!" screamed Midnight, cutting off the conversation. He gave a quick glance over the door, and immediately noted the tracks of a blowtorch. He slammed his hoof against the metallic surface. "Smooth Heart! Blaze! Are you two in there?!" he asked, while firing a shot against an earth pony in a straightjacket crawling towards him.

"Midnight? Yes, we are here!" sounded the voice of the pegasus mare.

"Bingo. Now we just have to open the damned door then." Grunted Stained Reflex, her shot blasting off the head of a unicorn mare. "So we have any idea how to do that?"

"I can try to force open the door. I mean, at least the pistons of the door will force it, and we can try to break in." Commented Gizmo, studying the door. "I can do it easily, and I can make a blowtorch in a minute, but I'll need your help Midnight." He added, beginning to tap on the panel beside the door.

"Whatever you want to do, be quick about it!" growled the griffin.

"Done!" called happily the earth pony, parting from the door as it opened with a low whistle. The griffin whistled, then ruffled the feathers on his neck, trying not to look impressed.

"Ma'am, we got separated from the others and now there are these things trying to…" began Midnight, before stopping and looking confused: Smooth Heart was messy, her mane tangled and ruffled. Blaze, beside her, was red as a tomato, his wings open wide and his mane messed up as well.

"Trying to…?" asked the mare, raising an eyebrow. Midnight Shadow blinked, before regaining his composure.

"To kill us. We have to move. Did you find a way to free Blaze's horn?"

"Nope. Give me a gun Gizmo!" ordered the mare, grasping one of the weapons that were on the earth pony's back, and turning towards the ponies that were advancing towards them. She blinked a little at the sight, but then just aimed and shot. "Where are Broken Jinx and the others?"

"I don't know, they must have escaped somehow. They probably encountered some guards." Commented Midnight, while beheading another undead pony.

"And these things?" she asked, blasting off a head and quickly reloading her rifle.

"Don't know. Just blast off their heads." Growled Stained Reflex, shooting an entire magazine into one of the creatures.

"That's enough." Commented Smooth Heart, while Blaze smashed nonchalantly one of the undead's head against a wall. "Let's move down. It's the only escape route, so eventually we'll end up coming across the others." Ordered the mare, before she noticed the sound of metallic hooves galloping over the floor.

"Stop them! Don't let them escapescreamed the metallic pegasus in his horrible voice, his sharp wings flapping wildly as he ran through the corridor, chopping pieces off from the crawling ponies he passed. Behind him, the three alicorns were trotting, their horns lowered. Blaze gave a quick glance at them, before turning towards the others.

"I suggest we flee as quick as possible. The odds, in a closed environment like this aren't in our advantage." He stated, his voice firm and calm, as if he was calmly sitting at a tea party.

"Well, if you find a good way to do so, we'll follow , smartass!" growled Stained Reflex, hitting an undead with her rifle barrel to push it back, before blasting off its jaw. The alicorn blinked, before grasping a weapon from Gizmo's saddlebag.

"Ah, no no Blaze, that's not a good weapon for this kind of fight!" exclaimed hurriedly the earth pony, pointing at two rockets at the edge of the weapon. "It's for fortifications, or a heavily armored enemy. I patched it up for those kind of si-"

He was cut of when the alicorn aimed at the floor, and shot the first rocket. Even if he shot far from them, the blast sent them to the ground as the floor exploded, sending debris all around, a couple of pieces hitting the undeads' heads. Plea didn't flinch and continued to gallop towards them, as from the alicorns horns, streams of green light were shot towards the group of ponies.

"Get down, down!" ordered the alicorn. The ponies and griffin gave a glance at the metallic pegasus chasing after them, before jumping down. After a fall of not even three meters, their hooves hit the ground. They flinched a little, before looking around: the corridor was quite empty, so they started to gallop away.

"Where are we going?!" cried out McGash, while following the others.

"I don't know! The furthest away possible from here!" screamed Smooth Heart. Plea's head poked through the hole, glaring down.

"Don't even try to escape from me!" he screamed, his voice piercing the ponies' ears. Blaze calmly aimed at the hole and fired the second rocket, tossing the weapon on the floor as soon the explosion echoed down the corridor.

"I thought you wanted to kill that thing." Commented Midnight, looking curiously at the alicorn. "Something changed?" The alicorn gave a quick glance at Smooth Heart, before returning his eyes to the unicorn.

"Yes. Something did change." He commented.

"Guys! Hey guys!" cried out a muffled voice from an air duct. "If you open this thing, we can run as well, you know."

"Of all the most stupid things…" grumbled Smooth Heart, as Midnight Shadow's horn lit up without him stopping, chopping away a part of the duct. With a series of grunts, Broken Jinx and the others crawled out of the vent, and joined the others on the run.

"It is nice of you to join us." Grinned Midnight Shadow, as Moneybags fell in step beside him.

"What are we running from?" asked Broken Jinx, while giving a quick glance behind them.

"The metallic pony."

"Oh. Got it."

"Saw what's going on?"

"Crystal Horn resurrected the dead with a poison, and he's heading towards the sixth level."

"Well, that's great." Grunted Smooth Heart, as Cobalt Rain and Silver Image shared a quick nuzzle, before Stained Reflex got back control of the mare's body and pushed back the pegasus. "We have to run towards the suspended wagos transport system. Maybe we can catch him."

"I hope so. Don't know what he's going to do, but I sure don't want to stay here and find out." Broken Jinx nodded, before turning toward the others. "Hey you all, it's quite likely that we are going to get in even more trouble. Are you with us?"

"Buck no!" screamed Twisted Soul, but his voice was covered by the exclamations of the rest of the ponies, and the muffled comment of McGash: "They'll better pay me extra." Broken Jinx grinned, and led the group down the corridors of the lab. Now that the other three unicorns had joined the group, they could continue to run and blast the occasional undead's head off without even stopping. Sometimes Smooth Heart and Broken Jinx flinched, when they saw the remains of a pony that they hadknown crawl towards them. But not for long.

They continued to run for some time, before passing through metallic door. They stopped, and stared, mouths agape, to what there was in front of them: the structure ended in a cave. An immense cave, carved crudely into stone. It was quite the change of scenery. The air was suddenly cold, as the floor continued a little bit, before cutting abruptly off into nothingness. Despite the set of lights lighting up the floor, the cavern was still submerged in darkness. A metallic bar, similar to a railroad, was suspended in midair, heading into the darknes.

"I don't know why, but I suppose that this isn't what we were hoping for, right?" commented Moneybags, noticing the looks on Smooth and Broken Jinx's muzzles.

"There was supposed to be a wagon here…" muttered the unicorn, pointing to the railroad thing. "But I guess Crystal's dislodged them… And we can't call his back from here, we have to return back to the control point…"

"Too bad you can't, right?" asked a distorted voice: Plea walked out of the door, limping slightly on a hindleg, as some sparks sizzled out from his metallic neck. Behind him, the three alicorns walked slowly towards the ponies, their horns blazing with green magic.

"Now, at this point its just stupid what you are doing." Growled Broken Jinx, aiming his rifle at the metallic pegasus. "You see what Crystal is doing! We have to stop him from doing whatever he wants to do!"

"Whatever you say, guard. I can't actually help you even if I wanted to. Now, we can just chill here, and wait. Nothing is going to change anyway." Commented calmly the pegasus, after glaring at the alicorn. As soon as he stopped talking, a blue, metallic wagon arrived, sliding down on the tracks with a slight hiss. "That's not…possible…"

-oOo-

Zira panted, looking at one of the last screens of her enormous computer. The rest of the screens were craked or completely smashed, glass shards scattered all over the floor, as well as twenty corpses, from all the prisoners that had tried to kill her. Just because she seemed a little nerdy, it didn't mean she wasn't able to fight. She was beaten too, that was true; she had been hit by an enormous number of bullets, hits and slashes, but she was fine.

Ok, she wasn't fine at all. She could feel her breaths become smaller every second, and the pain was numbing her brain. But she managed to call back the tram for those ponies. She looked on the screen, watched how they rushed in, as they blasted an alicorn's head off. She saw the alicorn, the very first success of the labs, charge Plea and pin him to the ground, he slashes from the metallic wings of the pegasus. She saw one of the alicorns charge stupidly into the two, pushing them both over the edge, as the last undead alicorn followed them, pushed off by the earth pony mobster and the unicorn medic.

She panted, coughing a little bit of blood on the keyboard. She tapped with her trembling hooves on a couple of buttons, before pushing a red lever. She saw the wagon tremble, and return to where it had come from. She smiled weakly, before sittting on the floor. She had done what she could. Now she was tired.

Awfully tired…

-oOo-

"Ma'am… are you ok…?" asked cautiously Broken Jinx, looking at the mare that was sitting in a corner of the wagon, glaring at the floor. Silver Image was beside her, murmuring comfortingly to her, as Shimmering Star distractedly rubbed Smooth Heart's back.

"Leave her alone, I think we may have something else to prepare." Whispered Midnight Shadow, loading his weapon and checking it.

"We are nearing the end. For better or worse." Murmured Cobalt Rain, as Nox fixed some scratches on the pegasus' wings. "In case I don't make it, you were a good friend Nox."

"You tell me that every time." Snickered unicorn, as the wagon decreased its speed and began to ascend.

"Huh? What's wrong? Why we are going up?" asked the griffin, looking around worriedly, as the wagon trembled a little.

"The storage levels aren't under the facility. It would be silly to store extremely precious equipement under fifteen levels in a seismic zone. Imagine if the anti-seismic devices didn't work. Actually, the last three levels are on the top of a mountain. The sixth level is righ on top." Explained Broken Jinx, as the wagon stopped and opened with a whistle.

"Let's go break some fucking bones." growled Smooth Heart, wiping away a tear.

-oOo-

Like all the labs, the 3-6 level was clean. And perfect. No stains, no blood splattered on the walls. All calm and silent. And extremely small. There were just a couple of rooms, before the main area: an immense, carved room in the mountain. As soon as the door opened, the ponies looked around with amazement, gazing at how well the metallic floor merged with the stone walls. The wall had an immense aperture on one side, showing the view of the Everfree Forest, lit up by the morning sun.

In the middle of the room, a series of machines were mounted under an immense parabolic antenna. Their eyes scanned the machine, before turning towards the only other pony in the room: Crystal Horn was looking through the hole in the wall, looking at the forest below him.

"Oh, you managed to arrive here. I'm quite surprised." He commented, turning and smiling at them. His smile didn't fad when at least four weapons clicked, ready to fire.

"On the floor Crystal, and put your hooves behind your head." Ordered coldly the pegasus mare. The unicorn ignored her, returning to watch out of the hole.

"You don't want to know why I did it?" he asked, with a little smile. The mare huffed. "I needed access to this place. And I also needed to prepare a special poison. A poison I'm sure you have seen in action."

"You are talking about the undead ponies, right? You are crazy, Crystal." Commented Broken Jinx, ready to block any spell the unicorn could have tried to use against them.

"Yes, them. And also, I needed to study the reaction of ponies in a situation of ignorance and danger. From this, I have to thank your friend Twisted Soul." Commented the unicorn, tapping his hat. "Since the experiment he did while he was free saved me a lot of time."

"That's nice…" growled the unicorn, his horn flashing of purple magic.

"Anyway, I needed a sample of poison, after testing its effects, and bring it here. Where there is this thing." Said Crystal, pointing at the parable-thing. "A material-convertor."

"A what now?" asked Silver Image, while Gizmo's eyes shone in wonder.

"It's sad to say, but even the most magical of the potions, in the end, is just a chemical. A composition of atoms. This thing is a magical convertor, that can change any kind of atomic mix into another." His mouth opened in a grin, while pointing at the machine. "Imagine the result, if the composition of the water would be changed in the composition of my poison…" he left the sentence suspended, while looking the terrified expressions on the other ponies faces.

"That would be the biggest bioterrorism attack of all times!" exclaimed Moneybags. "Boy, you are crazy!"

"Nice story. And guess what, I don't care why you decided to do something like that. Now on the ground, and we'll leave it to the princess to judge you." Ordered Cobalt Rain. For the first time, the unicorn's expression changed to one of surprise.

"Judge me? Do you mean, it will still be a concern for her?"

"What do you…?"

"Wait, did you really think I told my genius plan to you before actually accomplishing it, like a low-level fictional villain?" asked Crystal Horn in surprise. The machine whistled, and began to emit strange muffled sounds, as the antenna began to move.. "I already did it. I initialized the procedure. Ten minutes ago."

Oo-oO

Yeah, shit is going crazy. And worsening up for good. Stay tuned, the last chapter will be up in a few days!


	22. One of the ends

"You did what?!" asked Smooth Heart, astonished, as the machine's sounds continued to increase in intensity.

"Did you really think I was explaining my plan out of the blue? I was just earning some time so the machine could start its procedure." Stated Crystal Horn, raising an eyebrow. "Sometimes I'm astonished at how stupid ponies can be."

"Gizmo, shut that thing off!" ordered the mare, watching fearfully as the antenna began to move slowly, aiming at the hole in the wall. Crystal took a step towards the group.

"I'm afraid I can't allow that. I doubt he can do anything, but I'd prefer to not take the chance." Stated coldly the unicorn. Smooth moved her gaze to him again, aiming her rifle. Crystal chuckled, but didn't move.

"I say we beat him while Gizmo deals with that thing!" growled Moneybags, before darting towards the unicorn. Cystal's eyes widened in surprise as the stallion jumped and prepared to land his hooves on the unicorn's face.

Moneybags screamed in pain as three deep gashes appeared on his side, spraying blood everywhere, before he was tossed violently against the wall. Crystal's shadow raised against the wall, its deformed silhouette shaking with laughter. Crystal tapped his hat, sighing.

"Somepony is just too hard-headed, isn't?"

"Kill him!" roared Smooth Heart, firing her weapon, as did Broken Jinx and Twisted Soul. Crystal's eyes widened again, probably astonished by their still existing will to fight him. His horn shone, as a bubble of green flame surrounded him for a couple of seconds, apparently blocking the shots.

"Kuwaua…" he murmured, and his shadow screamed, rolling on the wall before sliding to the floor and darting towards the ponies.

"Spread out! Don't give that thing the chance to get all of us in one swipe!" shouted Broken Jinx, starting to run. "Aim to kill Crystal Horn! As soon as he dies, that thing will probably follow him into oblivion!"

"How can you be so sure, guard!" hissed Crystal. Every trace of calmness and friendliness disappeared from his face. He dodged a shot from McGash's crossbow, as he started to rustle in one of his suit's pockets. On the other side of the room, Cobalt Rain and Smooth Heart were flying by one of the walls, the deformed shadow following them, extending its deformed, clawy hooves towards the two pegasi's shadows.

"Ok, ok, ok, let's see, this thing…" muttered Gizmo Fidget, crawling towards the console of the enormous machine in the middle of the room, ignoring the shots and screams going on around him. "Let's see… order sent, processing in action and locked… ok, I have to enter in…mh…" he muttered, tapping quickly on the keyboard. "Mh… a seven number password… let's see… there are two hundred eighty-two million, four hundred seventy-five thousand and two hundred forty-nine possible combinations." The stallion smiled. "This will be easy." He said, grinning. Then his attention was attracted by a scream from McGash: he was crawling backwards, his still injured wings flapping weakly, while his crossbow was on the floor, engulfed in green flames.

"Now doctor, that's not nice of you…" growled Stained Reflex, stepping slowly towards the unicorn. Crystal focused his eyes on the mare, still looking slightly annoyed with Broken Jinx and Shimmering Star, both of them circling slowly around him. "You ignore your patients now? That's not profesional at all…" she growled, scratching the floor with her hoof. Crystal didn't answer, looking slowly around, and finally locating the one he was looking for: Midnight Shadow was well hidden under the machine, his horn faintly shining.

"I'm just focusing on not being killed." Stated calmly Crystal Horn, before whistling at its shadow. "Kill the one under the machine!" he shouted. The shadow twirled and immediately lost interest in the couple of pegasi, darting to the floor and sliding rapidly under the machine. Midnight didn't even have the time to turn, as the invisible force that was the shadow hit him in his side, first pushing him away from under his cover, and second starting to slash his back.

"You son of a bitch!" screamed Shimmering Star, dropping her weapon and charging the unicorn, her horn lighting up. "Nopony touches him except me!" she added, raising her hooves, ready to pin down Crystal. The unicorn just dodged, quickly turning and grasping a round bottle full of orange liquid from one of his pockets, and tossing it into the mare's face.

As soon as the liquid made contact with the fur of Shimmering, it burst into flames. The mare screamed in pain, as the flames quickly spread all over her coat, eating her alive. Jinx immediately ran to her, trying to put of the flames with his magic. Nox ran toward her as well, as the two pegasi aimed a shot at Crystal, taking advantage of the fact that the shadow was still mauling Midnight's flank.

"Why can't you stop him!?" asked Nox, while putting out the flames and immediately trying to heal the horrible scorches on the mare's body.

"Because he's not using his magic for attacking or ptotecting. I'm trained to fight unicorn's magic, and I tell you, this is no unicorn's magic." Grunted the guard, turning again towards the other unicorn and aiming again with his rifle. Crystal smiled softly and waved.

"Now, no magic, really?" murmured Twisted Soul, moving away from the motionless body of Moneybags and walking slowly towards the other ponies, his eyes locked on Crystal. He slowly walked towards him, Stained Reflex at his side. "I take that as an offense towards the entire unicorn race. After all our magic is our strongest weapon… right?" he hissed, before blasting a bolt of purple, misty light towards Crystal. Again, a shield of green flames surrounded him, and the bolt was deflected, bouncing into the earth mare, who fell to the ground as soon as she was hit, screaming.

"Silver!" cried out Cobalt Rain, flying down towards her, as Twisted's face twitched in rage. His horn lit up again, even though Smooth Heart was screaming to him to stop.

"Nopony stops my illusions!" he screamed, before throwing a stream of purple light against the other unicorn again. And again, the flaming green shield surrounded Crystal, the stream of light clashing against it. "You used my experiments! You are going to kill the ones I have to kill! You damned whelp!"

"Jeez, you sure are a talkative one." Sighed Crystal. "I really, really really don't have time to listen to your rambling." He moved slightly his horn, and the shield of flames burst outwards, sending all the ponies to the ground. Even his shadow flinched and left the bloodied body of Midnight, crawling away onto a wall. The stream of purple light backfired, bouncing towards Twisted. With a horrible sound, the unicorn fell to the ground, screaming as his horn shattered. With another burst of flames, the unicorn pushed the ponies back again, huffing. "Seriously, can't you just give up?"

Smooth Heart gritted her teeth, looking over her group: Shimmering Star was howling in pain, covered in horrible scars from the fire, while Nox was once more trying to fix her. Broken Jinx was standing on his legs, aiming once more his weapon towards Crystal, even if his magical grip was fading. Cobalt Rain was passing his hoof through Silver Image's mane, calling her name, without receiving any answer. Twisted Soul was fainted on the metallic floor, his horn shattered. McGash was crawling towards the panting body of Midnight, after having grasped Moneybags fainted body and dragging him towards the unicorn. Gizmo Fidget was tapping furiously on the console of the antenna, without any evident results, since the antenna was still moving, a series of green LEDs lighting.

The shadow slowly slided down off the wall, placing itself at Crystal's hooves, as the unicorn took a step towards the mare.

"Just give up." He whispered, while lighting his horn. A single hair from Smooth Heart's mane flew towards him, as he grasped a little doll from inside one of his pockets.

"Ma'am, orders?" asked Broken Jinx, his weapon trembling in his fading grip.

"Just go down quietly." Whispered Crystal, while sewing quickly the hair into the doll. "I'll promise it'll be painless. You can't do anything." He added. Smooth Heart fell to the floor, her eyes on the ground. "It's not like the cavalry will arrive to save you like in a second class story."

The floor exploded, as Blaze and Plea jumped out of the metallic surface in a shower of rocks and debris, slamming into a wall and falling to the ground, just for jump again on their hooves and jump against one-another once more.

"What the…?" murmured Crystal, while follow the sight of the two big stallions clashing, both of them stained with Blaze's blood and dirt. Plea was actually more damaged than before: one of his legs was almost torn apart, one eye was cracked and black, and one of his sides was deformed. On the other hoof, Blaze was covered in cuts and bruises and one of his wings clearly broken.

He was actually so surprised that he didn't notice the little buzzing sound that the machine emitted, before it stopped moving. He acknowledged it only when Gizmo's scream echoed through the enormous room.

"It's off!" cried happily the scarlet stallion, waving his hooves. Then he realized his tremendous mistake: Crystal's face twitched in rage as he pointed his hoof at him, screaming something. The stallion didn't even listen to what it was, since he immediately started to run, while the scream of the shadow arrived at his ears.

"Can't you contain that thing?" screamed Smooth Heart, regaining her will to fight, as she raised her rifle and shot two bullets against Crystal.

"I don't know how ma'am!" shouted Broken Jinx, firing as well.

"Darkness! That thing is vulnerable to darkness! Can't you seal it in some sort of magical black room?!" asked the mare, while reloading her weapon. Crystal shouted something in anger, as a stream of green flames flew towards the mare, who dodged it by jumping into the air.

"Materialization… not my piece of cake… Nox, help me!" ordered Broken Jinx, unloading his weapon against Crystal before tossing the rifle on the ground and starting to run behind the shadow, medic at his side. Their horns began to shine, as around the sliding figure of the shadow began to appear a series of walls. Smooth didn't have the time to focus her eyes on that, distracted by a couple of screams.

The first scream was from Blaze. The alicorn had stabbed his horn into the robotic pegasus' chest, and then broken it while managing to get out from under Plea's wings. He was now on the ground, panting heavily, the stump that was his horn sending some sparks into the air. Plea was wobbling on his legs, his head darting everywhere, a series of electical sparks dancing out from his body.

"Nice try, alicorn…" he managed to say in a horrible, distorted voice, his head still twitching. "But I have a secondary energy source, apart from the one in my chest." He flapped his wings, the metallic feathers clanking loudly. "And apparently, you are out of options here…"

"Oh, I know!" chirped Gizmo, turning his head towards the pair and suddenly darting towards them, so suddenly that the shadow actually keep sliding for a bit, trying to turn towards the earth pony before it was suddenly blocked by five walls closing around it. Broken Jinx's and Nox's horns were sparkling, as the dark walls closed, and an acute screech of pain was heard. Crystal screamed as if he was in pain and took a step back, as another load of bullets crashed into his shield of flames.

"Plea, do something!" he screamed, before looking at the machine.

"Do you hear him? Then just die!" croaked the pegasus, jumping towards the alicorn and trying to behade him with his wings, failing to notice the scarlet earth pony galloping towards them, as he rustled inside his saddlebag.

"When I came here…" Gizmo muttered, still rustling and running. "I had one of my nicest inventions, you know, a gauntlet that gave a hay of a shock. It got a little damage in here, but I also managed to add some new features. And now I have it attached also to an emergency, portable generator." He explained to no one in particular, extracting a spiked and contorted gauntlet from his saddlebag and placing it on his hoof, before pressing a button on the battery hidden inside the saddlebag. The battery buzzed, as a couple of cables connected to the gauntlet crackled and fizzled.

"I call it the Ass-frier 9000!" roared the stallion, punching abruptly the metallic pegasus in the side. The strength of the hit was enough to push Plea off Blaze's bloodied body, and as soon as the gauntlet made contact, a shower of sparks and lightning exploded from the mechanical body, as the secondary energy source overloaded, exploding inside the metallic belly of the pegasus. Plea emitted a scared scream, stumbling back as the final energy he had began to disappear. Blaze jumped to his hooves and pushed against the pegasus, sending him into the hole where the two had emerged from. The pegasus didn't react, as his remaining red eye became black as coal, before disappearing inside the hole.

"It's finished Crystal!" cried out Smooth Heart, landing beside Blaze and aiming her weapon. She was almost out of rounds, but she didn't care. "Now, stop right there!"

"I can't stop! Not now!" cried out the unicorn. He was slowly walking towards the machine, probably to try and activate it again. He slowly raised once more the little doll into which he'd sewn the hair of the mare.

"Why?! Why are you doing this Crystal?! Weren't we supposed to be friends and colleagues?! Stop all of this!" cried out the mare. The rest of her companions that could walk joined her, except for Cobalt Rain, who was still crouched beside Silver Image while stroking her mane and murmuring at her ear.

"Because it's me or Equestia, and sorry if I think of my well being!" screamed the unicorn, levitating a needle out of his pocket. "Just stop trying to stop me. Or I'll kill you. And this is a promise."

The only answer he received was the click of a weapon.

"As you wish, you silly mare…" he hissed, raising the needle. McGash and Gizmo darted towards him, as Broken Jinx shot at the unicorn's head.

-oOo-

Smooth Heart slowly opened her eyes as her ears twitched, listening the faint beeping noise of some sort of machine. She was laying on something soft and comfortable, and covered in something warm and cozy. A real bed. She sat, opening her eyes slowly.

"Oh, howdy. Finally you're back with the living, huh?" called a voice at her side. She turned, and saw Broken Jinx, Cobalt Rain and Nox waving at her from three beds beside her. In front of her, McGash was fuming in another bed, his wings opened and with a new set of bandages, while Gizmo Fidget was happily waving from his bed. The environment seemed to be a hospital room.

"…What's happened? Where are the others?" asked the mare after a couple of seconds. They all shrugged.

"Dunno ma'am. We woke up here. Apparently, a set of royal guards was sent to secure the site before its destruction, and saved our asses. Apparently they used a stunning spell against the entire area, and got us too. I don't know where the others are, they haven't allowe us to leave the room."

"Unbelievable, I say. Holding a griffin against his will…" grumbled McGash, but no one tried to reason with him.

"So… wait, are you telling me it's over…?" asked the mare, blinking.

"For you, it's certainly over!" sounded a new voice: the door of the room opened as a golden armored pony entered the room. It was impossible to say if he was an earth pony or a pegasus, due to all the metallic armor he was wearing. He seemed to be black, even if he had a beige scar around one of his eyes. To complete the set, he was wearing a pair of glasses, and had a fat crow sitting on his helmet.

"Commander Black Rose." He introduced himself, saluting. "Nice to see everyone here back on their hooves." He declared, with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Commander, the others, are they all ok?" asked worriedly the mare, leaning over her bed, ignoring some stings of pain along her spine. The pony nodded, with a strange expression.

"Yes… well, they are all alive."

"And Crystal Horn, he…"

"We took him down. I must admit, he surprised me. He wasn't stunned like you were when we arrived, he was trying to activate the machine that was in that room. He understood he was going down and… well he made a mess. explaining that isn't my job." he murmured.

"…I understand. Any other survivors?" asked the mare, laying again in her bed.

"Well, we found a bunch of prisoners wandering scared around the structure. They surrendered immediately. They were totally freaked out by the undead… we take them out." he said, anticipating the mare. "We also found a dying zebra inside the control room of the labs. She was near death, but we managed to save her."

"She's probably the one who sent us the transport for the sixth level! She helped us!" called Gizmo Fidget, smiling.

"I don't know, it's all quite a mess. The facility is gone, and now…" began the guard, before being interrupted by a light tap on the door. "Oh, yes. Please, come in, they are all awake!" he declared, before bowing his head as the door opened.

Cobalt Rain, who was drinking from a glass of water, turned towards Nox and spat water over his friend's face, almost choking. McGash beak hung open, as the other ponies' eyes widened: a big, graceful alicorn with a long, fluid, pastel-colored mane stepped inside the room, eying them with her purple eyes and a little smile on her muzzle. Beside her, Blaze entered in the room, while pushing a wheelchair where Midnight Shadow sat, his body covered in bandages. Behind him, Moneybags was limping slightly, pushing a wheelchair as well: Shimmering Star was seated in it, covered in bandages, humming softly to herself. And behind him, Silver Image trotted inside, closing slowly the door and smiling sweetly at Cobalt, waving her hooves.

The ponies in the beds were astonished. Almost ten seconds passed before they actually realized what was going on and managed to bow their heads. Even McGash made a funny motion, probably to show respect in the less submissive way.

"Princess, as you see, they are all in one piece." stated the guard, puffing out his chest.

"You did a good job, Black Rose." Said Celestia, while studying the ponies. "And you did too, my little ponies. And you too, guest from the land of the griffins. You managed to stop one of the worst threats Equestria faced in many years."

"That was our duty, ma'am." Stated Broken Jinx, tapping slightly the scars on one half of his face. "Just a little sad nopony will ever know of that." he added, before narrowing his eyes at the sight of Celestia's face.

"About that…" she began, before sighing and sitting on the ground. "I just thought it was fair for you to hear this now from me, instead of getting out of here and being surprised by the facts." She took a breath, and began to talk, moving her eyes over everyone in the room. "The subject, Crystal Horn, as soon as he understood he had no way to escape his fate, managed to send a command through a remote to another machine hidden in the facility. It managed to trasmit a pre-made video message to every screen all over Equestria. It was a montage of a series of moments… moments inside the facility, after the riot."

"He did what?!"

"He presented himself to Equestria. He directly showed to everypony what he did. Convincing ponies to kill each others, black magic… he made a confession, we could say."

"That's the most stupid thing I ever heard. That's stupid." Grunted the griffin, before shrugging under the alicorn's gaze.

"Actually, it was a clever move. He secured himself, from me." The princess sighed, before facing the ponies again. "I created the site as a way to hide evil from my subjects. To protect them, to let them all live in peace and happiness, without any worries. With that, I could say that fair imprisonment was punishment for all crimes, since there were only little crimes shown to the public. But now that he has shown himslef as a criminal, he's known by… well, almost everypony with a television in Equestria. So everypony knows that I'll imprison him in the dungeons. Because it's the only thing I can do. I can't… well, get rid of him, or I'll show my subjects that I'm no better than he is."

"He'll stay locked up in the dungeons of Canterlot's castle. We may actually interrogate him. I doubt he would have damned all Equestria 'just because' ." grunted Black Rose.

"Anyway, there is a little bit of chaos in every big city. It's something so big that amnesia spells would be useless." Sighed again the princess. "At least, I managed to convince my subjects that the site was just a laboratory, and that Crystal Horn had managed to mind control some ponies."

"What about us, princess?" asked Nox, scratching his ear. "You'll erase our memory?"

"I trust you won't try to sink the realm into any more chaos by talking about what the site was really about." Said calmly Celestia. "You all will be rewarded, and everyone of you will go on his way. I'm sorry for you, Smooth Heart and Broken Jinx, but we'll find you both another job."

The mare nodded, then moved her eyes over the group of ponies behind the princess: an experiment, a criminal and three crazy ponies.

"What about them, your majesty?" she asked, pointing at them. Cobalt Rain nodded, still looking at Silver Image. The princess looked at them as well, before smiling.

"I think Moneybags actually earned his freedom, as long as he stays out of trouble."

"I love to stay out of truble. I love the calm life." Snickered the green earth pony.

"As for Midnight Shadow and Shimmering Star, I can't permit them to roam free in Equestria. Other than being heavily injured, they are also unstable, and what they did didn't change that. I'll do my best to place them into the asylum ward of the Phillydelphia hospital. They are the best for these problems."

"What about Silver Image and…her…sister?" asked Cobalt Rain. Silver Image's smile dropped.

"Stained is gone…" she murmured. Celestia patted her head, before allowing her to go towards the pegasus' bed.

"I can't say I know all the details, but from what I do undertsand, she had some sort of parasitic personality. And I also understood that she was hit by an illusion spell of some sort. Apparently, the other personality was killed by it."

"No, she is still there…but she is… I think she's crazy now…" Silver Image murmured, before nuzzling Cobalt Rain. "I miss her…"

"About him, instead, I'm a little concerned…" said Celestia, pointing at Blaze. Smooth stiffened.

"He's the proof of what was going on in the facility. Reason tells me to eliminate him."

"You can't do that, you…"

"But… he's a failed project… maybe he's not that big of a deal." Stated the alicorn, shutting up the mare.

"Failed project, ma'am?" asked Blaze, raising an eyebrow. "I consider myself far from failed, I mean…"

"I know what you mean." Snapped the princess, before calming. "I asked for the creation of synthetic soldiers, because if there was war, I wanted to lose soulless machines, not my poor subjects. But you are a failed experiment, because you are too perfect. You have a soul. You have feelings. You can suffer. I wouldn't use you as a soldier." She said sweetly. "But I also won't leave you alone in a world you are not used to. Smooth Heart, do you mind taking care of him, until you feel okay with his adaptation to the world?" asked the alicorn. The pegasus didn't even answer, she just darted off the bed and hugged the alicorn.

"I'll let you rest. You are free to leave whenever you want. Black Rose will be outside of the room, if you need anything. He also has your money, if you want to leave." Said calmly the princess, turning.

"Hem… sorry, princess lady, I got a question?" grunted Moneybags, turning towards her. "We also had a freaking unicorn bastard with us. A prisoner like me. The psychologist of the prison. Where is he?"

"Yeah, where is that son of a manticore?" asked Smooth Heart, with a smile.

Celestia and Black Rose shared a glance.

-oOo-

The low beeping sound of the machine was the only sound in the room. There was nopony else around. The only light was coming in from the window, that released a stream of light on the only bed of the room, occupied by a unicorn. Smooth Heart and Moneybags walked slowly towards it.

Twisted Soul was laying on the bed, his eyes wide and motionless, his mouth moving slightly, as if he was talking.

"Oh dear…" murmured the mare. Moneybags took another couple of steps.

"Hey, you son of a bitch, stop this act and be a real pony. That's a fucked up way to avoid being beaten down by me." He grunted. The unicorn didn't react at all, still motionless, his eyes stuck on the ceiling. The earth pony waved a hoof in front of the unicorn's eyes. No reaction.

"He was hit by his own spell." Murmured the mare, looking at the unicorn. The once pridefll and intelligent unicorn was now laying like the dead in front of her. She didn't like him at all. He was a jerk, a backstabbing liar, but she would have never wished this fate for him.

"He's closed in his own illusory world. And now that his horn is broken, no one can enter into his brain and help him to exit the illusion. He has to do it himself."

"You know how many ponies survived Twisted Soul's illusions?" asked Moneybags with a grunt.

"How many?"

"None." He answered, with a frown on his face. "I didn't want to win like this." He added, before turning to leave the room. Smooth gave a last glance to the broken pony, before walking away herself.

A pony that had actually tried to do something good was locked inside his mind, while the one that planned all of this was going be shut away in a dungeon, even if she thought he deserved much worse.

Sometimes victory has a more bitter taste than expected.

Oo-oO

And with this, we say goodbye to our OCs, who have finally escaped from the facility, in one way or another.

Smooth Heart and Blaze will find an occupation as mail ponies, delivering everywhere, without having to fight again for their lives. They'll probably end up with a bunch of cute, healthy foals.

McGash will spend his money on new equipment and will return to his poaching buisness, even if he'll be unable to fly easily from now on, and will be a little scared of sewing needles.

Cobalt Rain will retire from bounty hunting and will work with Silver Image in a mirror shop. She'll ask him to marry her two years after this story.

Gizmo Fidget will leave Ponyville and manage to make a fortune with his talent, selling mechanical gauntlets for every use all over Equestria.

Midnight Shadow will finally join the nightguards of Princess Luna, after learning to manage his problem of rage during daytime.

Broken Jinx will join the Royal Guards under Shining Armor's leadership.

Shimmering Star will never leave the mental institute. She'll be unable to move freely after the burns she received.

Nox will be promoted to medic commander of his unit.

Moneybags will end in truble.

Twisted Soul will be transferred to the hospital of a little town, better suited for his kind of problems. A happy place known as Silent Hill.

And as for our villain… Crystal Horn, the one that plotted all of this… well, I'm going to write about it. So, if you want to know what will happen to him, wait for 'A Crystal Diamond'.

Thanks to everyone that enjoyed and reviewed this story. And also thanks to Blackrose Raven who managed to edit through all my gibberish.

Give your love to my other fics too pals, they feel so jealous about this one.

Ok, I'm done now. Quoting PewdiePie "I'll see you next episode of whatever I make."


End file.
